His Vector Grey
by Darkryt Orbinautz
Summary: Sequel to Her Void Pink. Twilight's and Pinkie's relationship is quiet. However, Spike's curious to know what's been driving Twilight so nuts lately, neither knows what to do in a relationship, So, basically, Spike has no idea what they're doing, Pinkie has no idea what she's doing, Twilight has an idea of what she WANTS to do, but... Currently: On Hiatus. Sorry.
1. Gifts

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 1**

**Gifts**

* * *

Spike lay asleep in his basket in the upper level of the library. Twilight's tendency to fret and worry and study sometimes kept him awake at night, so when he had absolute nothing to keep him from going to sleep, he appreciated it all the more.

Of course, there being nothing to prevent him from GOING to sleep said nothing of whether or not something was going to wake him up AFTER he fell asleep.

His developing dragon ears- not much more than holes in the sides of his head- picked up the sound of paper rustling. Normally, he would dismiss it, but something about it seemed off. Library books didn't sound like that...

In curiosity and in concern, he opened his eyes, threw off his blanket, and made his way down the stairs.

Peeking over the corner of the door, Spike saw a veritable flock of magazines on the Twilight's desk. He found this strange, as Twilight much preferred hardcover and paperback books over glossy magazines and gaudy articles.

Spike decided to go over and read the magazines. Maybe that would explain why Twilight made an exception for them?

Ruffling through, Spike found the magazines didn't have a lot in common. One was on rings and jewelry, another was on collars and chokers, and then the next one after that was advertising a catering company that specialized in sweets. And after that was on dresses!

"Ooh...none of these magazines are any help." Spike heard Twilight groan. "I need something nice to-"

To what? Spike wondered, turning around to see Twilight, tiredly conferring her issue with her pet owl. She saw him, too.

"SPIKE!"

Oh, gem scraps! Spike forgot it was past his bedtime and he wasn't supposed to be up!

"Twilight, I can explain!"

"I don't care!" Twilight snapped at him. "Baby dragons need their rest! Go back to bed this instant!"

"But I-"

"NOW, Spike!"

"Okay, okay!" Spike threw his claws up to show he surrendered. "I'm going! I'm going!"

Spike walked up the stairs sideways, making sure to face Twilight with his open arms. Twilight glared at him all the way up the stairs, cowing him like a sheep dog herding an out of line member of its flock.

Once he was halfway up the stairs, Twilight was satisfied and turned around to the magazines, placing her knees on the table and looking down at the piles of gloss paper.

Spike looked over his shoulder to see her shoving one aside from the pile and flipping through it. What was she trying to find that was giving her so much distress?

Spike crawled into his basket and tried to fall back asleep, but his mind preferred wondering what Twilight was trying to over the idea of shutting down. He twisted and turned, a brillion questions in his head. She was always upset when he was up past bedtime, but why did she so...angry at him for rooting through her magazines?

Why?

Eventually, he found his sleep again, though the mystery of the magazine was going to be the first thing on his mind when he woke up.

* * *

When he woke up, however, was not his decided time to. Instead of yawning and stretching as he normally would, he found himself being nudged and whispered to softly.

"Spike..." Twilight began. "Spike, wake up. I have a treat for you."

At the notion of a treat, Spike immediately propped himself up. "Treat? What kind of treat?"

Twilight smiled with a serenity to it and held out her hoof. In it was a blue bowl filled with ice cream, chocolate syrup, cut-up bananas, and a cherry on top.

"A sundae?" Spike happily questioned, eagerly taking the bowl into his claws. Once it was in his grasp, however, he thought of a question. "But why?"

"I feel bad about last night." Twilight answered. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I had just trying to find a gift for...somepony. I'm sorry."

"Gift for who?" Spike asked, alternating between speaking and shoveling spoonfuls of the ice cream into his mouth.

Twilight looked away. "Somepony special. That's why I'm having so much trouble figuring out a gift for...them." There was a delay in her sentence, near the end. Like she was literally choking herself to keep certain words from being used.

Spike completely missed the emphasis Twilight was putting on her pronoun. "How bad could it be?"

"What if I get them something they don't want or don't like? Will they still want to be...friends with me? What if I get something that offends them, and they don't ever want to see me again!?" Twilight flailed her legs in the air as she explained to Spike her worries. Spike was starting to wonder what was making Twilight sound like she was choking so much.

"Calm down, Twilight." Spike told her casually, dismissing her like it was another of her unnecessary freakouts she was so prone to. "Just get them something they like."

"WHAT DO THEY LIKE!?" Twilight bellowed, the volume of her voice blowing Spike out of his basket. He just barely clung onto his sundae as he was blown away. "That's the problem!"

"Well..." Spike raked himself for ideas. "You know, I could help out more if I knew who it was you were trying to get a gift."

"Whom!" Twilight corrected. Spike rolled his eyes, really _really_ not caring.

"So...who is it?" Spike repeated. His mind wandered to Twilight's friends, and why she would be having trouble getting any of them gifts. Rarity would do with a fancy, expensive jewel. Or a stallion, maybe, but he didn't think ponies could go out and buy those. Applejack didn't care much for gifts, so a fruit basket would probably be the best bet. Something edible. Rainbow Dash had no reservations about letting ponies know what she wanted. Fluttershy was so timid and naive that any gift meant for her would probably give her an anxiety attack. And Pinkie Pie...

What would a pony get Pinkie Pie, anyway? She lived in a bakery, so chocolate and cake were out. Spike didn't know how Pinkie felt about gems, or fruit baskets or... a stallion.

Twilight was pacing while Spike roamed around in his own head.

"Well..." Spike scratched his head. "What's the occasion?"

Twilight glared at him, confused. "Occasion?"

"Yeah. You know, the reason you're getting a gift in the first place?"

Twilight sat on her haunches and stared off into space. "The reason I'm getting a gift..." She murmured airily, sounding distant and detached from reality.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, growing concerned from the spacey look in her eye. "Twilight?" He waved his claw at her, earning no response. He put his sundae down and walked over and pinched her.

"YOW!" Twilight yelped. She looked at Spike, having come back from her daydream. She looked ready to yell at him, but she realized what happened and turned away, embarrassed. "...Thanks."

"Soo..." Spike drawled. "The occasion?"

Twilight shirked. Why was she so unwilling to tell him what the occasion was?

"Duuhmmm...it's...celebrating our...friendship!" Twilight's hesitance was suddenly replaced by enthusiasm at the last word that Spike had no reason to be suspicious of. "We're celebrating how long we've been friends!"

"Okay...but, is it just one of your friends?" Spike questioned, concerned that Twilight was singling out somepony of her close circle when they had been friends for an equal amount of time with each other.

"Well, yes." Twilight admitted, the drop in her voice suggesting she was aware of Spike's concern. "But this friend likes to, uh...record landmarks in our time together!"

"Landmarks?" Spike questioned.

"Yeah!" Twilight affirmed.

"O...kay then." Spike turned to his sundae. "Well, I'm no help. Why don't you just give her a sundae like you did for me?"

Twilight groaned. "Because that's an apology sundae, Spike! Not a friendship hallmark sundae!"

Hmm. What a Pinkie-esque thing to say. Spike dismissed the thought quickly and took another bite of his sundae.

"Hmm...you know what? This sundae is great, but it could use some gems." Spike said, trying not to upset Twilight while still expressing his desire for gems.

"I don't have any gems for you right now. I still need to go to the store..." Twilight sadly told him.

"Ah, that's okay." Spike walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a drawer, from which he plucked a large, kind of pretty, but not that pretty, cyan brilliant-cut jewel. "I keep a secret stash for when you're out. Though I guess it's not a secret anymore!"

Twilight's eyes locked onto the jewel. "Do you have another one like that in there?"

"Uh, I think so." Spike answered. "Why?"

"Because that would be perfect for my gift. It's nice, in a way, but it's not some billion-bit piece of jewelry that's worth more our house."

"Oh. Well...I guess I could give you this one." Spike said, holding the gem out for her.

Twilight was reluctant. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Rarity has a bunch of them. I mean, a BUNCH of them. In fact, she gave me this one because she had too many and said if I wanted another one (or two or three, heheh) all I had to do was ask!" Spike tossed the jewel across the room, Twilight catching midair with her magic. Twilight regarded it reservedly before she levitated it into the pocket of her hair.

"Thanks, Spike. You really have no idea how much this means to me."

Spike dismissed her with a wave of his claw, not realizing the truth of Twilight's words. He really did have no idea how much it meant to her. "No problem!" He plucked an emerald from the door and started trying to grind it into his sundae.

Twilight left the room, evidently happy with Spike's sacrifice. Spike didn't hear her mutter something about the color pink.

Later in the afternoon, close to lunchtime, Spike didn't he was going to be diverted from his meal just yet, as he had only started to work on it. An ooey-gooey mess of a recipe that was barely made cohesive by the high concentration of chemicals in the gem. He put it in the over, waited for some time, and pulled it out, setting it on the table to cool.

He stared at, his tongue flopping from the side lustfully, as he waited for it to be safe to eat.

(How eerily prophetic.)

As it was, he put a claw on it to gauge it's temperature. The hiss on his scales was... telling, at the least.

But as he stood there, waiting patiently for his treat. He heard a creak, like somepony trying to sneak into the library. However, when he looked at the library entrance, the door was untouched.

"Huh." Spike said to himself before refocusing his attention on the meal. Then he heard ANOTHER door creak, followed by...giggling? It sounded like giggling. Frowning and furrowing his little scaley eyebrows, he started prowling around to find out what it was. He was upset at being lured away from his treat, but he really shouldn't have been. Who was going to eat it while he wasn't looking? Twilight? The owl?

He came 'round on a door with a gold doorknob and keyhole. He walked right past it, at first, but a deep breath from the other side caused him to back up and try to barge it. No matter how hard he shook the knob with his claws, it wouldn't budge. Must've been locked really well.

Spike stopped, grumbled to himself a little, then tried peeping in through the keyhole.

He didn't really understand what he saw.

There was a bed inside a room that was decorated in pink. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were both lying on it, Twilight in Pinkie's lap. The keyhole was not so great at transferring sound, but from the slight change in her belly, Spike reasoned Twilight was...purring?

Spike put his ear to the door, trying to hear something.

"So, what do you want to do today?" He heard Pinkie ask.

"Any and everything you want is fine." He heard Twilight reply in a very unusual low tone.

"Yeah, but I'm asking what you want to do."

"I just want you to be here."

Pinkie groaned. "Twilight-"

Spike pressed his ear against the door harder and harder, trying to make sure the sound was at its best quality, but h eventually pressed his head on the door so hard he lost his footing on the ground and fell over, causing a thunk!

Splayed out on the floor, Spike could hear them from underneath the door's bottom.

"What was that?"

"I don't know. I'll go see."

Spike scrambled to his feet and scurried over back the kitchen. He barely made the jump from one room to the next before he heard the door unlock. He just narrowly avoided trouble, this time...

"Huh. Nopony or nothing there...although...just to be safe..." He heard Twilight say to herself.

Great! Now Spike would never find out what was going on between Pinkie and Twilight were doing- or- or why or...no, wait, that was pretty much it, actually. The how was unimportant, and he knew the when and where.

After he heard the door lock back up, he sneaked back over to find Twilight's owl on his perch set up by the door. It looked like he was...standing guard? Weird.

Observing him, Spike happened on an idea. He wiggled over and started trying to sweet-talk the nocturnal bird.

"Hey, you know what Twi and Pinkie are doing in there?"

The owl nodded.

"Would you mind telling me?"

The owl shook his head no.

Spike was frustrated. "Oh, come on! Why can't I know?"

The owl just held out a feather like a disapproving finger.

Spike's eye twitched. He did not just get told off by an owl, a creature of inferior intellect to a dragon!

(Actually, most owls and dragons were neck-and-neck in smarts. Dragons just live longer, so...)

(On top of that, Twilight's owl was smarter than Spike.)

"Please?" Spike begged. "Just a little peek?"

The owl seemed to mull over this, then nodded, apparently deciding to allow him his "peek."

The owl floated over, grabbed the doorknob in his talon, and pulled the door open slightly.

Spike carefully tiptoed over, careful not to make a sound. With the door now open, Spike peered inside to see Twilight and Pinkie were in the same position as earlier, Pinkie on her back, Twilight in Pinkie's lap.

"Ready?" Pinkie asked Twilight.

"Ready!" Twilight answered.

Pinkie took her hoof and propped Twilight's head up. She hesitated, but then she went in closer, took in a deep breath, and exhaled on Twilight's neck. Twilight made a very pleased "oooh!" sound.

"You just can't get enough of me, can you?" Pinkie asked with some odd mixture of concern and self-pride.

"Nnooo..." Twilight answered quietly. "More?"

Pinkie giggled. "Sure. More."

Pinkie stuck her tongue out and started licking the back of Twilight's neck. Twilight moaned and cooed and purred. Spike was captivated by the sight. It was like watching a helpless, caught animal in some predator's sweet-yet-ironclad grasp.

"What are they doing?" Spike asked, more to himself than to the owl.

"Did you hear something?" Twilight asked Pinkie.

Once more, with feeling...gem scraps! Spike hightailed and made a straight beeline for the bedroom upstairs, hoping against all odds that he would be out of sight before Twilight saw him.

Once inside the room, he locked the door. It's not that he wanted to keep Twilight out, he was just in a panic. He dived for his basket and tried to appear innocent.

After he had a moment to calm down and catch his breath, he saw the owl sitting on his roost in the room, apparently chuckling.

"You!" Spike accused, with a claw pointed to match. "You were trying to get me in trouble, weren't you!?"

The owl quit laughing and rolled his eyes. He made a gesture with his wing as if to say: "Not quite."

Spike intensified his glare at him. Was the bird trying to teach him a lesson, or something stupid like that?

Of course, even now, he still didn't know what was going on.

He heard the doorknob rattle.

"That's strange...why is it locked?"

Spike put his claws over his face. He rushed over the door open and unlocked, immediately swinging it open to beg forgiveness.

"Twilight I'm sorry I didn't know and everything happened so fast and I-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Twilight held out a hoof. "Calm down, Spike. What happened?"

Spike didn't know what to say. He didn't know what happened! He also couldn't let Twilight know Spike had been spying on her and Pinkie. He thought on it for a moment and realized his best ticket out was in what he had already said.

"I don't know!" Spike said, throwing his claws in the air.

"So you ran up the stairs and locked the door?" Twilight questioned.

Spike wasn't sure how to answer.

Twilight suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace. "You poor thing! Something must've scared you out of your mind! I came up here because I saw you left your meal on the table, but...oh, you poor thing!"

"Yeah..." Spike chuckled, feeling a little guilty for the sympathy that he didn't entirely deserve. "Poor me..."

"Come on." Twilight patted him on the back. "I'll warm up your lunch, and we can eat together. Pinkie's going to be having lunch with us. I hope you don't mind."

"Why would I?" Spike questioned nervously as he brought down the stairs. He sat down at the table with Twilight and Pinkie, both of whom made no notice of any weird things they may have doing earlier. Twilight blasted Spike's cold bowl with her magic, making it steam and hiss again. She pushed across the table over to him.

"Here ya go!"

"Thanks..." Spike nervously began scooping up mouthfuls.

Twilight and Pinkie noticed his behavior. Pinkie leaned in close to Twilight and whispered.

"You think he saw us?"

"Maybe. It would explain some things." Twilight whispered back in response.

Twilight would deal with later. Now, they were going to enjoy a lunch with each other.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**I've never really written a Spike-centric story before... **

**In my universe(s), pony manes and tails can work as pockets. Exactly how Twilight keeps a freakin GEM in her hair without it weighing down her head to the point she can't walk, I have no idea.**

**So, uh. You remember in Her Void Pink I said that a conflict resulting from Twilight's and Pinkie's relationship would be a different conflict then the one in her HVP? Well, here's a story with that conflict instead of the the one in HVP. But that part where Twilight 'stares off into space' is _supposed to be_ LIKE a scene from HVP from the view of somepony that isn't Twilight.  
**

**I thought of this as I was finishing HVP's last chapter. Last chapters are sad, and I don't like sad. So I started thinking about what I could do for a sequel, and this came to mind! **

**I also noticed that, in "A Chink In The Armor" for those of you have read it, in the first chapter, Spike seems to know Twilight's and Pinkie's relationship ahead of time. I realized I could use that for story material!**

**And on a further note of continuity, the room Spike sees Pinkie licking Twilight in is supposed to be the room Twilight and Pinkie are hanging out in Chapter 5 of ACITA. **

**And the bed in the room is the one Spike and Twilight built for Pinkie in HVP.**

**Been mentioning ACITA recently a lot. Is it leading up to something? ...Nah, couldn't be!**


	2. Denial, Denial, Denial

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**By Darkryt Orbinautz**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 2**

**Denial, Denial, Denial.**

* * *

Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike all ate their food in a medium pace between nervously slow and not nervously slow. Each one knew they there was something wrong- an elephant in the room- but nopony wanted to address it. No pony was sure _how_ to address it.

After they finished eating, Spike got out of his seat and began gathering up dishes. It was his job, being the assistant, after all.

"Spike?" Twilight asked uncertainly. "Would you mind letting Pinkie help with the dishes?"

Spike was confused. Pinkie wasn't living with them anymore. In fact, that arrangement had been entirely temporary as far he knew, so she shouldn't be doing chores. On top of that, Twilight never made his job that easy. Sometimes she would give him a break, sure, and maybe give up a small luxury to make his life easier, but never something to the extent of having a helper.

Deciding to take advantage, Spike agreed. "Sure!" He handed the stack of bowls and plates and silverware to Pinkie and began to trot off towards the door, getting slightly ahead of himself.

"Uh, there's not that many, so can I go out?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes."

Spike pumped his fist. "Yes! I'm gonna go see Rarity!"

"Have fun." Twilight wished him.

Spike had a 'secret' crush on Rarity that everypony knew about, so of course his first priority would be to see her, maybe help her collect gems, and possbily woo her, sweeping her off her hooves. (That last one was not quite as likely as he himself liked to believe.)

And...maybe he could ask her about what he had seen Pinkie and Twilight doing.

He was almost out of the room when he heard a clatter he recognized as a dish being dropped. Rather than immediately go back in and ask if everypony was okay, he stuck the corner of the door and started to eavesdrop.

"Pinkie, are you okay!?" He heard Twilight yell.

"I'm fine!" Pinkie quickly answered with urgency in her voice. "I just realized something!"

"What?"

Spike tried to listen in, but Pinkie's voice turned into a quiet whisper that he could barely make out, even with his dragon hearing. When the whispering stopped, he heard Twilight say his name.

"Spike! Are you still here?"

Spike sighed and nervously rounded the corner to see the two mares looking at him. He was so looking forward to seeing Rarity.

"Have you seen me and Pinkie do anything...unusual together?" Twilight asked.

Spike's heart skipped a beat. Did she know he had seen them!? If she did, how!? It was that owl, certainly. Owloyicous. Curse him!

"No." Spike fibbed, barely able to hide that his knees were buckling from anxiety and fear.

"Uh-huh..." Twilight gave a drawn-out nod, a small smile on her face like an icy cold, seductive baroness.

"And since you didn't see me and Pinkie do anything unusual together, you couldn't tell Rarity about it, Right? Since, you didn't see it, after all."

Spike's eyes widened. The question was a brilliant one. Spike had seen them, Twilight knew he had seen them, and her words were so expertly crafted as to be a denial of his acknowledging this, an acknowledging of his denial, and a denial of acknowledging his denial...or something. It was like Twilight was one step ahead of him.

"N-no." Spike stuttered. "I couldn't..."

"Good dragon." Twilight said briskly, turning to Pinkie. "Oh, and I'll be coming over to Rarity's later. I need to ask her about something..."

Spike fidgeted. He knew full well that really, Twilight was just going to come over and ask Rarity if Spike had told her anything. Or at least he thought he did. She did have something she wanted to ask Rarity about...but she was going to do that, too.

One out of two isn't that bad.

Shaken, Spike turned and stumbled his way out of the library. He very slowly closed the outside door with a creak, and was about to turn and run to Rarity's as fast he could when he heard Twilight and Pinkie talking. He decided to eavesdrop again.

Some ponies just never learn.

"Are you sure that was the right thing to say to Spike?" Pinkie questioned.

"No." Twilight answered. "But I don't know what to say, and I'm not ready for anypony -especially Rarity- to find out about us yet. You know how much she loves to gossip..."

"Okay..."

That made Spike's head spin. Us? Us who? Us _how?_ His mind latched on to the nearest thing he could make sense, and that was defending Rarity, but let's face it; she really did love her some good gossip, and nothing Spike could say could change that.

He heard a disturbing, pleased moan from the other side of the door, followed by an exasperated sigh. He had no idea it was from Pinkie hugging Twilight, Twilight's reaction, and Pinkie reacting to Twilight's reaction.

Being so in love with Pinkie as she was, Twilight always enjoyed Pinkie's touch, but after a certain point, Pinkie had to wonder why Twilight liked it so much. Was she just made out of pleasure, or something? Pinkie would wonder to herself...

* * *

Spike rushed all the way from one end of Ponyville to another, his little dragon feet working double-time to get to Rarity's in a hurry. Not that there wasn't any need for rushing; Twilight hadn't demanded he be back at a certain time or anything. But try telling him that.

Once he arrived to the Carousel Boutique, the resting place, nay, castle, of the 'most beautiful pony in the world', Spike pressed his face up against the glass doors, eyes scanning left and right in search of his crush.

She wasn't there. Not sewing a cloth, not fussing over a tiny detail on a dress, no suspicious glossy magazine she would always fold and put away whenever he came into the room, for whatever reason...

Not seeing any note that said she was out, or a closed sign, Spike entered the building, uninvited.

"Rarity?"

All he got to answer him was an empty silence.

Spike was beginning to get really freaked out, right now. First, Rarity is nowhere to be seen, then, she doesn't answer when he calls.

"Rarity!" He shouted, raising his voice. He whimpered when he didn't reply again.

Getting an idea- and with it, hope that the worst hadn't happened- he made his way up the stairs and pushed open the door to Rarity's bedroom.

Thankfully, and much to the ease of his queasy mind, Rarity was there, sleeping in late under her covers, a night mask over her eyes. Spike heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

And then he promptly swooned. Rarity looked beautiful, even in her sleep!

"Oh, Big Macintosh..." Rarity murmured, off in dream land.

Spike got to his feet, infuriated. What was so great about Big Macintosh!? What did he have that Spike didn't have!? Well, aside from his muscles, quietness, and understanding... ignoring all that.

Jealousy overriding his manners, Spike decided to wake her up. He had come to spend time with her, after all. He tiptoed on his talons and approached the bed, snickering quietly to himself as he was about to get back at Rarity for dreaming of Big Macintosh instead of him...or, something like that. It made sense in his head!

"What are you doing?"

Spike turned around with eyes as big as dinner plates to see Sweetie Belle, Rarity's younger sister, in the doorway, observing him with curiosity, wondering what he could possibly doing in her older sister's room...

Poised over her bed.

With his claw just about to rip off the cover.

In the dark.

(He hadn't turned the light switch on. What little light the room did have was seeping from the hallway.)

Spike quickly got over and chuckled nervously. "Ahaha! Yeah, this...must look really creepy to you, doesn't it?" He said, balancing on his tip toes.

"Yeah. Creepy." Sweetie Belle answered.

"Well, I came over to see Rarity, and she was asleep, so...I was gonna wake her up." Spike scratched his head, now realizing how rude that would've been after admitting it out loud.

Sweetie Belle guffawed. "GUH-HA! You thought you were going to wake up Rarity by taking her covers off her? No. No, no no no. Come with me." Sweetie Belle gestured with her hoof for Spike to follow him.

Spike was hesitant, but obeyed, hopping downstairs and following Sweetie Belle into the area where most of Rarity's dresses were kept.

"Uh, Sweetie Belle? I don't understand how this is going to wake Rarity up."

"Watch...and learn." Sweetie Belle told him, carrying a stool over to a cabinet. Placing the stool down, she climbed it and began to rummage through the drawer, eventually pulling out a ridiculously colored sombrero of even more ludicrous proportions. She hopped off the stool and ran towards one of the mannequins, which was wearing a very pretty black night dress.

She placed the sombrero on the mannequin's head.

Spike was just as confused as before. "Uh, Sweetie B-"

"Wait for it..."

"I really don't think-"

"Three...two...one." Sweetie counted off.

Spike was startled to hear a very loud clatter, and a brutal galloping like the march of a ten-thousand pony strong army, and was even more surprised to feel hot, steaming breath on his neck. He turned around to a terrifying sight.

Rarity was standing before him, huffing and puffing, eyes rolling around the room like a malfunctioning cyborg programmed for absolute termination of her target and teeth bared like a shark.

"Fashion sense...tingling..." Rarity rasped. "Where...is the emergency?" She noticed the sombrero and before Spike could say anything, bolted over to it, took a stance, breathed in deeply, raised her hoof...and then calmly and gently whisked the hat off.

"There." Rarity said, doing a total 180, smiling brightly. "That's better. You two have fun." She haughtily trotted into the other room.

"Works every time." Sweetie Belle whispered to Spike. "Hey, Rarity! Spike came over to see you!"

"Well, isn't that nice of him." Rarity said like she didn't think much of it- something which was absolutely crushing to the young dragon.

He composed himself and soldiered on, however. Rarity had said many a thing before that he found heartbreaking, but it wasn't like she knew about his feelings.

He crossed his arm his over chest and beat it proudly like a bestial ape preparing to challenge others for authority and went into the next room. Rarity was eating a bowl of cereal, having only just been woken for breakfast. (Almost lunch at this time, but semantics, shmantics.)

He was about to deliver a greeting that would cleverly segue into a subtle flirt when the door to the Boutique rang.

"Oh! A customer!" Rarity zoomed out of her chair...then zoomed back to eat one more scoop of cereal, before zooming -for real this time- to the door.

Spike snapped his fingers at being denied. "Stupid customer... who do they even think are, anyway, showing up just as I was about to put my moves on Rari-ty!"

He had walked towards the door as he spoke, and his heart practically froze in his chest when he saw who the 'customer' was.

It was Twilight. He had just called Twilight stupid, but that thought was quickly ignored in favor of a new one; namely, that he could see the look in Twilight's eyes as she engaged Rarity in small talk. It was one he recognized, having spent so much of his life with her. Not _icy_ so much as _iced over_ with a thin sheet of alleged 'control'. He knew it meant "I'm calm now, but I'm expecting something that will infuriate me so I'm tensing up prematurely."

"Whatever are you doing here, darling?" Rarity started conversation.

"Oh, I told Spike he could go see you, and decided to check on him."

"Well, I only woke up just now, darling. He's fine. Why do you ask?"

Twilight looked away. It was like Rarity had caught on to her. It wasn't like her to worry...well, not this much, about his safety.

"No reason...although, has he mentioned anything to you?"

"No. We've hardly talked at all." Rarity rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Now that I think about, that really must be remedied. He comes all the way out to see me, and I snub him! How rude of me."

Spike was elevated to a point of bliss hearing Rarity's recognize she owed him something. Anything.

"But he hasn't...asked you about any strange behaviors I may have exhibited?"

"No." Rarity answered, starting to get really confused now. "Twilight, is there an ulterior motive to this check-in?"

"N-Yes." Twilight answered truthfully, unable to lie. "Have a nice day!" She left, like absolutely nothing about this was strange at all.

"All...right then." Rarity drawled, the bizarreness of the conversation she just had preventing her from knowing what to say. She turned away from the door and noticed Spike. "Oh! There you are, Spike. We should talk."

Spike puffed his chest out proudly and smoothly walked into the room, arms taut with ego. "Yes. Yes, we should."

He was startled back into the other room when Twilight suddenly burst through the door.

"I almost forgot!" Twilight exclaimed, stepping in place to show her anxiety. "I needed to ask you something!"

"You already did."

"Something else!" Twilight stopped and took in a deep breath. "I, uh..." She scraped a hoof and turned her head.

"You, uh?" Rarity asked.

"I...got into a relationship with somepony recently."

Rarity let out an ear-piercing, heart-stopping, blood-curdling, alarm sounding, glass shattering excited "SQUEEEEEEEE!" She started stepping in place herself in excitement. "Oh, darling, I'm so happy for you!" She pinched Twilight's cheeks with her hooves. "Who is he? What is he? Is he tall? Is he attractive? Is it Ace? I'll bet it's Ace, isn't it?"

Twilight blinked. "Why would you think it's Ace?"

"Because Big Macintosh is_ mine!_" Rarity snarled the last word with meaning that made it clear that if Twilight told her Big Macintosh was her beau, she'd ripped the librarian's heart out with her bare hooves.

Silent and unseen, Spike crossed his arms and huffed. He was just a good choice of male as Big Macintosh!

"Right." Twilight said, unconvinced that Rarity had any shot with Applejack's brother for reasons that had nothing to do with Applejack herself. "Well, he's not Ace, and he's not Big Macintosh, but we are in a relationship."

"And?" Rarity begged, stars twinkling in her eyes.

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO IN A RELATIONSHIP!"

"Oh." Rarity's excitement dissipated. "Then why do you get into one?"

"Because I thought I did, and I was wrong! I don't! I need your help."

_Wow. _Spike thought to himself. He could really the defeat in Twilight's voice at the last sentence.

"Well, are you having trouble? Do you think he's cheating on you, or that you're not hot enough?"

Rarity had Twilight's attention a in a vice grip.

"Cheat? I...never even thought about that." Twilight put a hoof on her mouth, looking sobered up. Spike nervously tiptoed out of his hiding place.

"Hey, Twilight!" Spike greeted.

"Hey, Spike." Twilight responded, still clearly shell-shocked by the idea of cheating. "Are...you...okay?" She made sure to ask in her daze, remembering to keep up appearances.

Spike, however thought she needed asking that more than him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm...not sure." Twilight answered uncertainly, turning back to the door. "Have fun with Rarity..."

As Twilight began walking from the Boutique, Rarity and Spike exchanged worried glances.

"Uh...hey!" Spike yelled, walking towards the door and able to catch Twilight before she was out eyesight. "You sure you don't want me to come home with you?"

"No. I wouldn't want to interrupt your time with Rarity." Twilight said.

Rarity walked over and put her hoof on the door, she and Spike sharing another glance before looking back to Twilight. With one last uncertain look, Rarity closed the door.

Spike walked over the window to keep an eye on his employer, who had her head tilted up to the sky in deep thought.

"She wouldn't do that to me, would she?" He heard Twilight wonder through the window.

Twilight suddenly shook her head. "No, no she wouldn't. She wouldn't cheat on me, but she might break up with me if we let that happen."

But the next thing he heard...Spike found absolutely terrifying, even without any context or indication (at least, a sufficient indication to _him_) to know what she was even talking about. It was simply from her tone, and the angry, determined way she stomped off into the distance towards the library.

"I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen."

* * *

**Author's Notes for "Denial, Denial, Denial"**

**1. Clarification **

**So, I'm experimenting with the A/N. Numbering and separating so that it doesn't shift from one thing to another oddly. Let me know if it actually makes it any easier to read...because that's what it's supposed to do.**

**2. Trouble **

**I had some trouble with this chapter- I'm having trouble with this ENTIRE THING. And It's not that I don't have ideas, it's that I have...no will to live, anymore, basically. (No, I don't need therapeutic help, I'm just exaggerating.) And I'm kinda grasping at what to do, and how to carry it out. Like...let's get this straight, I flat-out don't like Spike. **

**And then there's the perspective. I want to communicate to the reader clearly what Twilight's intentions and thoughts are, but Spike wouldn't know that exactly. So, I have settled for a just a few dip-ins here and there. Originally, I was just going to make it switch perspectives between Twilight, Spike, and Pinkie so you can see each one's issues clearly. **

**I also found myself breathing better when I wrote him being in Rarity's bedroom; back to the "Pony (Dragon, whatever) in love doing something that's questionable when observed from a third party" type business that was in HVP. **

**3. Stress**

**So, I'm dealing with Stress and real life right now, so writing is hard. Actually, writing is as easy as it's always been; _typing_ is hard.  
**

**4. No Faith in My Ability to Convey Something to Readers Without Explaining it in the Absolute Most Annoying Detail **

**Uh...In the first part of the chapter, Pinkie realizes Spike could ask Rarity about what they were doing because she asked Rarity for advice in HVP.  
**

**5. Plans. **

**On that note, Twilight and Pinkie asking Rarity for advice will be a recurring theme this time around. And before you ask; yes, this will go horribly wrong.  
**


	3. Promises

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**By Darkryt Orbinautz**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 3**

**Promises**

* * *

Spike watched as Twilight's purple, pink-striped tail began to fade from his vision, worry gnawing at his scales. What was going on? Was she okay? Was she going to have a breakdown, or a meltdown, or...something!?

"Spike?" Rarity said airily, calling for his attention.

Spike, ever the easily distracted dragon, immediately forgot about worrying for Twilight's mental health and swerved around to face Rarity. "Yes?"

"Could you play with Sweetie Belle for awhile?" Rarity said. Had Spike been better at interpreting tone, he would've been able to tell Rarity just wanted a distraction to Sweetie Belle so her younger, rambunctious, messier sister wouldn't try to plead to help with her dresses. But Spike wasn't, so he missed it. Even with that, though, the sight of Twilight reappeared in his eyes.

"I don't know..." Spike muttered, looking down. "I'm kinda worried about Twilight...she's acting kinda weird."

"I'll look into it." Rarity assured him, though it was clear she was just trying to make Spike focus on her problem, not Twilight's. "But please? She's ever so mes-, er, full of energy!"

"Well..."

Rarity smiled kindly and fluttered her eyelashes. Seduced by Rarity's gesture, Spike blindly agreed to whatever task it was that had been set before him.

"Okay!...What is you need me to do again?" Spike dazedly asked, having forgotten it already.

"Play with Sweetie Belle." Rarity pointed to the other room where the mannequin Sweetie Belle had place a sombrero on to wake Rarity up.

All right. Play with Sweetie Belle.

How hard could that be?

Spike waddled his way into the next room while Rarity went the opposite direction into her work area to sew and stitch her tasteful dresses. Sweetie Belle was playing with a ball idly, pushing it into the dresser with enough force to make it roll back towards her. The little filly sighed when the ball returned to her lap. She was clearly dreaming of playing with her other friends, excitable fillies just like her.

"Hey, Sweetie Belle!" Spike greeted, walking through the door with what he thought was bravado and masculinity, but Sweetie Belle just thought he looked silly.

"Hey, Spike." Sweetie Belle greeted, bored.

"Rarity asked me to play with you?" Spike informed her, subtly asking for Sweetie Belle's own permission to do so.

Sweetie Belle stared with a spacey look in her eyes, like nothing made sense to her. Just like before, but exaggerated. She had never played with Spike before...so it would certainly be something new.

"Uh..."

"Okay!" Sweetie Belle squealed in her squeaky voice that alternated between adorable and grating. She rolled the ball towards Spike.

Spike stopped and stared at it. He, personally, thought himself too 'mature' to do something as a childish as rolling a ball back and forth between two laps. But he relented, plopping down on his tail and pushing the ball back towards Sweetie Belle.

They pushed it back and forth, as the game was meant to be played.

After some time passed and a few strokes of Rarity's sewing machine came and went through the air, Spike got an idea.

Twilight had asked Rarity if Spike had asked about anything she and Pinkie were doing...but would she think to ask Sweetie Belle, if Spike asked her instead?

Probably not.

_Hopefully_ not, or he was about to get himself in a_ lot_ of trouble.

"Hey...Sweetie Belle?" Spike asked as he pushed the ball back towards her.

"Yeah?"

"What do you know about... I mean, what do you think it means when a pony licks another on the back of their neck?"

Sweetie Belle stared, then cleared her throat and gave Spike a flirty, half-lidded expression. "I know exactly what it means."

"You do!?" Spike and Rarity exclaimed at the same time. Rarity had come along to relieve Spike of his duties at this exact moment, so the thought her little sister knew what that meant was- was heart-stopping! And that confident look she was giving Spike!

"Yup." Sweetie Belle said with a slow nod. "It means..."

"What?" Rarity interjected, mortified at the idea of her sister knowing about such things.

"Somepony let Scootaloo shake the whipped cream again." Sweetie Belle explained, making an oblique reference to one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' many, many, many..._many_ failures to obtain their Cutie Marks. Presumably involving Scootaloo shaking a can of whipped cream too hard and causing it to explode.

Rarity breathed a sigh of relief and wiped her brow. "Whew! For a second there, I thought...well, never mind that now. Spike, I've finished my work...for now. You may leave." Rarity turned around to give Spike a clear exit.

Spike didn't catch what Rarity was saying, too focused on Sweetie Belle's rather lacking answer. Somehow, even if he hadn't caught Twilight and Pinkie red-hooved in the act, he got the feeling whatever was going on didn't involve whipped cream.

The door chime rang. Rarity squealed in surprised and zoomed over to greet who it had been. Sweetie Belle rose up from the floor and trotted towards the doorway to peek. Spike ignored her...but then he thought he heard a familiar voice, so he turned around and joined her in eavesdropping.

Pinkie Pie had come over. She looked antsy, anxious, and uncertain about something.

"Whatever can I do for you, darling?" Rarity asked, rolling her 'R's.

"Well..." Pinkie scraped her hoof around in circles. It was so odd, seeing bright, cheery Pinkie Pie nervous about something.

"What is it, darling?" Rarity asked, lowering her head to show her concern.

"Rarity, do you know anything about...being in a relationship?"

Rarity squealed. "Ooh! Well, isn't that sweet! Pinkie Pie wants to know about being in a relationship! Isn't romance just in the air today!?" Rarity let out an extremely high-pitched giggle, elated that so many of her friends were finding romance so soon in such quick succession. First Twilight Sparkle, then Pinkie Pie..maybe she would find her own colt on top of it all!

Hey, wait a minute...

"...N-no, that would be ridiculous." Rarity muttered to herself, trying to shake the absurd thought from her head.

"What?" Pinkie asked.

"Well, Twilight came in earlier today asking for relationship advice, and then you did...and for a second there, I thought maybe you and Twilight had started a relationship! Hahaa!"

Pinkie, without missing a beat, and showing absolutely no sigh that phrase made her in any way uncomfortable, immediately burst out laughing.

Following Twilight's example of _absolute_ control, of course.

"Oh, hahahhaha HA! Me-and me and Twilight!? Twilight and I? Together!? Geez, Rarity, making ponies laugh is supposed to be MY job! Hahahaha!"

Spike stifled a chortle. Pff-ah! A relationship between Twilight and Pinkie! How would that even _work!? _Could two mares even _be _in love in with each other? He had never heard of such a silly thing!

The two shared a good, long, hearty healthy laugh before the awkward tension Pinkie had brought in returned.

"So...what is it you need to know, Pinkie, darling?"

"What do I _do?_" Pinkie whined.

Rarity raised an eyebrow, Pinkie's question being one of the vaguest questions she'd heard in recent memory. "Can you...specify?"

"Well..." Pinkie tapped her hoof to her chin nervously.

"What are you having problems with?... Gifts for you anniversary? Something romantic to do?"

Rarity gasped quite audibly, putting a hoof to her mouth in shock.

"Or even...trouble in there?" Rarity jerked her head upwards towards...her bedroom.

Pinkie stared. "Why would me and-" Pinkie stopped abruptly, like trying to cut herself off from a certain word -or name- before she said it. "My...coltfriend be having trouble in your bedroom?"

"Not in _my_ bedroom, in-oh never mind." Rarity hung head, seeing Pinkie didn't understand what she meant. Spike didn't either.

Rarity started to explain the basics. Not because she underestimated Pinkie's ability, but because she wanted to paint a picture.

"Well, normally, when two ponies get into a relationship, it's because they like each other. Do you and your coltfriend like each other?"

Pinkie paused, lost in thought as to how to reply to that inquiry.

"Well...what if you're not in a relationship because you like each other? What if you're just in a relationship to keep the other pony happy?"

"But wouldn't you have to like each other before you wanted the other pony to be happy?"

"Uh, yeah, but... what if you don't like like them, but you like them, and you don't want them to be sad?...What if you just want to keep them from crying?"

Rarity stayed a silent, taking in the sincerity of Pinkie's question. The vulnerably she was presenting. The uncertainty she was making absolutely certain to Rarity right now.

"Then..." Rarity said sincerely as she possibly could. "I think you're in a relationship for the wrong reason."

Spike could see the hurt in Pinkie's eyes from this answer. Well, it wasn't so much hurt as...what was that? Confusion? Loss? Well, yes, actually, loss, but not...loss. In fact, it wasn't 'loss' at all. It was being _lost_. As in, her quivering sky-blue eyes showed clearly that she was lost, without any guidance in this mysterious relationship of hers.

"Okay...thanks for your help, I guess." Pinkie muttered, turning towards the door and starting to walk towards it with her head unusually down. For Rarity, it was saddening to see her normally cheerful friend so...so down in the dumps.

Just as Pinkie was about to exit the door, the door swung open, and nose came into sudden contact with Twilight's nose. Both ponies blushed profusely, though Spike noticed that Pinkie's blush was quite a few shades deeper than Twilight's.

Twilight dipped her head down and took in a big whiff of Pinkie's chest fur like she was smelling a exotic flower.

"Ahh...you even _smell_ sweet." Twilight whispered sweetly, giving a look of questionable intent at Pinkie in the process. Then she noticed Rarity. She walked briskly around Pinkie, shoving the pink party pony aside with her tail, before approaching their other friend.

"Hey, Rarity!"

"Hello, Twilight." Rarity greeted. "Here to pick up Spike?"

Spike clenched his fist and shook it. He just got here! He didn't want be taken away from Rarity yet.

"No." Twilight answered. "Just to let you know I was going to be out for awhile, so that you might have to take Spike to the library after dark."

"All righty then! ...Might I inquire as to what's so important that you're going to be out after dark?"

"It's a surprise." Twilight whispered into Rarity's ear, glancing over her shoulder at Pinkie Pie. "Have a nice day!"

"You two, dears!" Rarity waved as the two ponies walked off. Rarity shook her head.

"Some days, I wonder what's up with those two."

_Yeah._ Spike agreed in his head. _I've been wondering what's up with those two myself..._

Sweetie Belle turned her head. "You're breathing on my neck."

"Oh! Sorry." Spike threw his hands up and backed away from her.

"Mmm." Sweetie Belle gave Spike a glare, then walked off to another room.

"Spike?" Rarity asked sweetly, walking towards him. "Did you hear the last part of that?"

"The part about being out late? Yeah. What about it?"

"You can stay here after dark, but don't be afraid to ask me to accompany you home." Rarity told him before walking up the stairs. "I think I'd like to take a nap..." Rarity murmured.

Spike felt lighter than air. There was only a one word to two word difference between Rarity's offer and a request to walk him home – something ponies with hidden affections always do to the target of their affection. Of course, Rarity wasn't thinking anything like that. Rarity was just making sure little Spike knew he could ask for Rarity as a chaperone. But let him have his delusions, eh?

Spike turned and went back into the room where Sweetie Belle and him had been playing, bracing his claw against his chest, thinking a highly fantasized version of events that would result in him sweeping Rarity completely off her hooves.

* * *

Spike stood in the room, three times as tall and muscular as he actually was. He was lying on his back, lifting a bar that had Rarity's mannequins on each end, serving as a weight.

Rarity came into the room to gush and admire over him. "Oh, Spike! Those mannequins are so big and heavy! However do you lift them easily?"

Spike chuckled and threw his mannequin-bar off to the other side of the room. He got up, breathed on his knuckle, and rubbed it against his chest, making his chest scales shine. "Well, Rarity, when you're as perfect a dragon as I am, it's more challenging to resist the temptation to lift them and show off then the actual lifting is."

Rarity sighed and swooned. "Oh, Spike! Sometimes I wish we could be together, but Twilight would never approve..."

Before Spike could tell her that he could talk to Twilight and needle her into agreeing to the idea, Rarity got up and left the room.

Spike let his arms fall limp and sighed. "Oh well. Out love is undeniable! We'll be together one day." Taking solace in the knowledge his and Rarity's getting together was inevitable, he resumed lifting the weight, grunting as he lifted even though he hadn't been before. The grunting was more to show off and sound flashy than to release stress.

"Spike!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, bursting into the room. "Scootaloo and Apple Bloom accidentally brought a Manticore into town!"

Spike dropped his weight, took in a deep breath, and clapped his claws together.

"No problem." Spike whirled around and pointed dramatically. "Take me to him!"

"I don't think that will be a problem." Sweetie Belle said. Spike followed her to the Boutique's door, and she opened it. Spike could see the Manticore rampaging, knocking aside apple carts with its massive paws.

The Manticore flexed its huge bat wings and roared, apparently quite infuriated at whatever the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders did to bring it here.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom ran into the Boutique, screaming for their lives. Spike remained calm.

"I guess you won't need me to take you to it after all!" Sweetie suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the door.

Spike peered out and saw the Manticore was charging straight towards the Boutique, knowing Applbe Bloom and Scootaloo had gone inside.

Bravely, Spike used his TREMENDOUS STRENGTH (Trademarked by Spike himself, even though he couldn't have trademark such a long-standing phrase) to push away Sweetie Belle out of the creature's way.

The Manticore charged straight the Boutique's door, using his blunt, furry head to smash right through the wall, sending plaster flying in all directions. Spike grabbed onto it's mane the way a matador grabbed a bull's horn.

Spike grumbled. He wished he brought along his sword today. It would've made this battle take only a moment. The way he liked his battles to take. However, he had not, so this was going to a little longer.

As he held onto the Manticore's mane to keep himself where he wanted to be, he had to take in a whiff after whiff of its horrific breath, and found himself staring at its elongated, pointed fangs longer than he cared to see them.

The Manticore began shaking his head, trying to shake Spike off himself. It was actually quite successful at that, sending Spike into one of Rarity's many dressers, smashing the woodwork. Spike rubbed his head sorely while Sweetie Belle gasped at the Manticore getting a good hit on Spike.

Spike got to his feet and growled at the Manticore, raising his fists.

The Manticore glared, disbelieving that he would actually be challenged.

Spike smirked arrogantly and gestured his claws for the Manticore to come at him.

The Manticore took his taunt and charged, fangs bared. Spike sidestepped him, making the lion-beast hit his head against the shattered drawer. The beast roared in pain, then turned around to face Spike again.

They stared each other down. The Manticore turned and began to circle around the room, trying to intimidate him.

Ha! He was Spike! He was un-intimidate-ble! Never mind that wasn't an actual word!

The Manticore, seeing Spike undaunted from his tactic, narrowed his eyes at him.

Spike reached over and picked up a mannequin, waving it like a club, ready to engage the Manticore in a long grueling match to decide life and death.

All three Cutie Mark Crusaders watched with bated breath.

The lion roared and charged at him again, but he shook the mannequin and smacked it across the face. The Manticore stumbled, but attempted to swipe at him with its claw blindly. Spike ducked it and smashed the mannequin against its leg, making it howl in pain. The Manticore turned around and attempted to lash at Spike with its stinger, but Spike raised the mannequin as a shield, and the stinger pierced it instead, injecting its poison into the polymer, where it was useless on the non-living material.

Spike jerked the mannequin from the stinger, then jumped into the air and began wildly banging the mannequin into the Manticore's face. It raised its paws to shield itself, and muttered something that almost sounded like a pony language, but Spike didn't care much for what it had to say.

Eventually, he started beating it back towards the door, hitting it with the mannequin before it finally literally turned tail and fled back out the hole it made, back to the forest from whence it came.

Huzzah! He had done it! He had beaten back the beast! Surely he would be celebrated by the townsfolk!

He turned around, expecting the Cutie Mark Crusaders to lift him up, cheering his name, and Rarity to leap onto him and start showering him in kisses...

But instead, what he got was an exclamation of shock.

"Spike, what in the wide-wide world of Equestria are you doing!?"

* * *

And with that, Spike was snapped back to reality, much to his dismay. Dismay turned to horror and guilt, however, when he saw Rarity kneeling over a knocked-down Sweetie Belle, who had a freakin' shiny shiner.

"O-oh, Rarity!" Spike stammered, forgetting to question what or why or how this happened in favor ensuring he stayed in Rarity's good graces. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize..."

"Hush!" Rarity snapped at him coldly. "Come, Sweetie Belle...let's get you some ice."

Spike stood there, knees buckling, brain wracked as he wonder what happened. He raised his hand to see it a solid ruler in it. Oh... he must have picked up the ruler while in his daydream and smacked Sweetie Belle with it while in his dream. That would explain when the Manticore started to speak a pony language...

Spike could hear the hum of Rarity's freezer as she opened it, and the squish as she pressed a bag of ice to her little sister's eye.

"There, Sweetie...now hold that up to your eye." Rarity instructed.

Rarity came back into the room to an apologetic Spike, but she would have none of it.

"Rarity, I'm so sorry! I got up caught in a fantasy I was having...I didn't mean to, I promise!"

Rarity whinnied dismissively. "First of all, you need to apologize to Sweetie Belle, not I. However, I very much doubt Sweetie will let you near her at the moment...assuming I would, even!"

Spike raised his claw, but Rarity continued on her tirade.

"And you can rest assured, I _will_ be telling Twilight Sparkle about this."

Spike's jaw dropped. If Rarity told Twilight about this, Twilight would probably never let him come over to the Boutique again! "No!" Spike put his claws together in pleading. "Please don't!"

Rarity closed her eyes as Sweetie Belle weakly walked into the room, unable to walk very well with one of her legs occupied with pressing the ice against her eye. Spike was blindsided by the realization Sweetie Belle would probably never want to see him again either. They had never interacted as much they had today, and to have that interaction end on this bruised note...

"I'm sorry, Spike, but you've forced my hoof." Rarity said, bringing her sister close. "And I do believe it's time for you to go home now."

As Spike put the ruler down, hanging his head in shame, it took a moment for the emotional impact of the realization Rarity hadn't added her usual "Darling" verbal tick to the end of her sentence...most likely intentional on her part.

As he walked across Ponyville, clawing at his eyes in shame, he started thinking about horrible this was going to get for him. All the consequences that were going to result for this. Twilight would probably ground him for a week, if not a month. All of Twilight's friends would probably not talk to him for weeks. Sweetie Belle would tell her fellow Crusaders, and then they would tell the other fillies at school, who would tell their friends, and Miss Cheerilee would never let him anywhere near one hundred yards of the school building.

Some ponies waved at him as he walked, but he didn't wave back at them.

He got to the library, and Owloyicous woke from his easily disturbed sleep, immediately noticing the dour mood his dragon roommate was in.

"Hoo." The owl hooted as Spike walked past him.

"Hoo yourself." Spike muttered. "I'm going to my basket."

Spike meant that as a determent to the owl for further conversation, but instead, it only spurred the owl into action. Owloyicous spread his wings and flew off his perch, flapping himself up the stairs and into Twilight's and Spike's shared room, just narrowly avoiding getting the door slammed on him.

"Hoo." Owloyicous hooted again as he took up residence on his other perch in the bedroom.

Spike glared at him and grumbled something under his breath before hopping into his basket and pulling his covers over himself.

"Hoo." Owloyicous repeated.

Spike bolted upright, fist raised and mouth open to tear into the nocturnal avian, but when he saw the look in Owloyicous's large, yellow eyes... they looked worried, and curious. Concerned, as well, something Spike, in his (entirely imagined) rivalry with Owloyicous for who was Twilight's favorite never thought he would see from the owl.

"Hoo." Owloyicous flew off his perch and into Spike's lap. He nuzzled his soft feathery head against Spike's stomach. The owl patted the edge of his wing against Spike's chest, almost as if he was asking "Want to talk about it?"

Spike sighed and decided to open up to him. The owl already knew he was upset, so there was no chance he'd be able to convince the bird that it was nothing.

"I hit Rarity's little sister while playing make-believe at the Boutique...I gave her a black eye, and now Sweetie Belle is going to hate me, Rarity will never want to see me again and Twilight's going to ground me FOR LIFE!" Spike buried his head into his claws in his outburst while Owloyicous nuzzled him.

Spike chuckled, not really feeling better, but appreciating the owl's efforts nonetheless. He scratched behind Owloyicous' ear, which the fluffy bird seemed to like.

Spike sighed and stopped. "Oh, who I am kidding? It's not like telling you about this will make it magically go away."

Owloyicous nodded, as if conceding that was a fair point.

Spike resumed sulking under his covers, waiting for Twilight to get home and for his impending brutal punishment. Left alone to his thoughts, -a very dangerous place to be for an upset pony- he constantly thought of ways this could escalate and escalate and get worse and worse for him, going all the way from being ground for months, to years, to Celestia branding him a traitor to the throne and tossing him in the royal dungeon and throwing away the key.

Twilight wasn't kidding when she said she was going to be out for awhile. It was went from afternoon, to sunset, to twilight before he could hear the door at the library swing open and clicked closed.

Spike sprang out his basket and made a beeline for the foyer, hoping to get to Twilight and try to plead his case before Rarity tattled on him and sweet-talked Twilight into giving him an extra-harsh punishment.

He had made to the bottom of the stairs when he heard the door open again.

Oh no. Spike thought to himself. Please don't let that be Rarity...

He peeked over the corner to see, yup, it was in fact, Rarity. Normally, he'd be elated to see her, but right now, seeing her was like watching a clock count away the minutes to his public execution.

"Hey, Rarity." Twilight greeted, unaware of the horrors Rarity was about to share with her as the bookworm put her bags full of groceries on the table. "What brings you here at this time of night?" Twilight pulled out one of the groceries from her sack to examine it- a carton of eggs.

"Funny you should ask that." Rarity answered. "What brings me here, is Spike."

Twilight seemed baffled at this. "What do you mean?"

Spike covered his eyes, unable to bear the thought of seeing Twilight's expression when Rarity told her what had transpired.

"While at my house today, Spike decided to engage in a little _roleplay._" Rarity hissed the last word.

"Okay? I don't see how that's bad... a young little dragon like him needs to exercise his imagination."

"Even with that imagination results in Sweetie Belle getting a black eye?"

"What!?"

Spike slapped his claw against the side of his head. How bad was this going to get?

"Yes! He was apparently so caught up in his fantasy he didn't realize he was smacking Sweetie Belle with one of my work instruments!"

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry."

Rarity scoffed, waving a hoof. "Oh, please, darling. You're not the one who needs to apologize. Spike, however..."

"I'll talk to him." Twilight assured Rarity, putting a hoof on the side of Rarity's neck.

"I do so hope you talk some _sense _into him." Rarity hissed the word in such a way that made it clear she was using it as an euphemism for punishment.

"I will!" Twilight assured her nervously, scooting her towards the door.

Rarity glared and humphed before slamming the door shut behind her.

Spike expected Twilight to become filled with righteous fury and burst into flame... but instead, her breathing become shallow and she threw herself against the door.

"Oh, Spike...please, _please,_ for the love of Celestia, tell me you don't have what I used to have with Pinkie." Twilight murmured under her breath, putting her fore hooves together in prayer.

What, the tongue on the neck thing? ...No, no, that was in the present, so she had it with Pinkie. Whatever she was talking about was something she used to have with Pinkie...not that he knew what that could possibly be either! How was he supposed to tell her if he had it or not if he didn't know what it was!?

Twilight cleared her throat and took in a deep breath. "Sp-i-i-i-ike!" She shouted, unawares her faithful assistant had been eavesdropping all along. "Could you come down here?"

Spike nervously stepped to answer her call. He was expecting her to be mad, to be furious and fuming, but instead...she looked worried and distraught.

"Y-yeah?" Spike stuttered, almost suspicious that her worry was a front so she could 'lead in' to her anger.

"Are you okay?"

What? That was out of nowhere. Sweetie Belle had gotten a black eye, not him.

"Yeeeah?" Spike drawled, not sure he liked where this was going. Granted, he didn't like where he expected this to go, but...

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, starting to pace around in a circle around him. "Are you sure you haven't had any...any strange dreams lately?"

"Nnno." Spike answered, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't...why?"

"I'm just worried about you. "

Unbeknownst to Spike, Twilight was in fact fretting over a slight problem she had that she had only recently overcome...however, while the problem Spike appeared to be having was similar enough for her to sympathize with him for not realizing what he was doing, it was different enough that she had no idea what to do about it.

"I don't want you role-playing anymore for awhile, okay?" Twilight pointed her hoof at him.

"Okay?...yeah, yeah, okay!" Spike nodded eagerly, seeing this was a rather light punishment for what he did. Who would he be to not take it?

"Okay." Twilight went back to the table, sorting through her groceries.

As he watched Twilight pick up and pick out the groceries, he couldn't help but notice a recurring theme amongst them... butter, milk, eggs...frosting... it was almost like Twilight was planning on baking a cake!

No, no, no! That was silly. Twilight would never do that. She didn't bake! This was what she had been out so long for? The ingredients for a cake? Why not just order one from Sugercube Corner? They would probably make a better cake anyways!

Spike shook his head and turned to walk back to his room. But as he did so, it really dawned on him that he had gotten off lightly. He tried to swallow the guilt and breath easy knowing he wasn't about to have all his rights stripped from him, but he heard a little voice in the back of his head telling him he knew this wasn't right.

So he turned around to Twilight, who was using her magic to pull a baking pan out of the cabinets. Wha...she really was making a cake? Ridiculous! Maybe something else was going on...yeah, that was it...of course, he couldn't think of whatever that might be that would lead to Twilight gathering the ingredients for a cake. What could she do that he didn't know she could that that would involve cake pans and materials that _wasn't actually_ making a cake?

Never mind that right now... "Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

Spike shifted his toes nervously. "Aren'tcha gonna punish me for hurting Sweetie Belle?"

"Why would I do that? It was an unfortunate accident, wasn't it?" She adopted an accusatory tone. "..._Wasn't it?_"

"No, no, yeah, yeah, it was!" Spike quickly assured her, flailing his claws out. "But still...I did hurt Sweetie Belle..."

Twilight rested her front leg on the table, holding her cheek in her hoof. "You did do that, didn't you?"

"Yeah..."

Twilight was unusually silent following that. It didn't normally take her this long to make a decision. She sympathized with him probably more than she should have. And not in a "He did a bad thing so he doesn't deserve sympathy" way, but more in regards to her flip-flopping mental health. Fine one week until Saturday, and then she completely flips out...

"Okay..." Twilight muttered, trying to think of something that wasn't too harsh on him while still serving as enough of a punishment to get Rarity off their backs. She raised her hoof. "No...no, um...no sapphires for a week!"

Aww! Spike loved sapphires. There were amongst his top favorites of the gemstones he ate. Oh well. When he compared against what he_ thought _was going to happen, it was in fact also quite minor. However, at this point, trying to get Twilight to punish him more would just be unnecessary and uneasy on both of them. If it meant not getting publicly decried by everypony who knew him, he could go without sapphires for a few days.

Spike nodded in acceptance of his 'punishment' (such as it was) and turned towards the staircase, crawling up it and into his basket.

However...as he tried to drift off to sleep, he could hear clanging and fire roaring and the unmistakable scent of pastries... so she really was trying to bake a cake? What was the point in that!?

He supposed he'd have to ask her about it tomorrow.

* * *

That night, he had a very strange dream.

He was standing amidst a long line of Rarity's mannequins, but...they were _al-l-l-i-i-ive! _

They were all wearing rather girly, in his opinion, pink armor. Very vividly pink, at that. In fact, everywhere he looked, it was pink. Pink armor, pink spears, pink walls...the only things that weren't pink was the wooden floor, the mannequins themselves, and himself.

He found himself also wearing the pink armor. Uggh! How very girly frou-frou of him.

Spike, after all, had never heard the mantra of "Real stallions wear pink."

Looking around, he noticed the mannequins were all rather... focused on something. Like the blank, vacant emotionless stare of a Royal Canterlot Guard.

He dropped his own spear when he suddenly heard an extremely loud, deep grumbling like the growl of a huge monster. He shirked up, raising his arms to shield himself and closing his eyes in preparation. It took him a minute to realize nothing was happening. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the mannequins were looking down at him, as if the dropping of his spear had brought disgrace to their good name.

"Heheh..." Spike chuckled nervously and reached down to pick the spear back up, but then he heard the grumble again. This time, however, he realized what it was.

It was his stomach. He was hungry. Of course that's what it was! Duh! He facepalmed. How could he not realize that? Didn't he know the sound of his own stomach?

One of the mannequins pointed their hoof forwards, and Spike saw he was pointing at some stairs they were also pink. He looked to the mannequin again, who nodded, encouraging him to go up them. It gestured to it's mouth.

...Oh! It was probably trying to tell him there was some food he could get into up there. With that in mind, he carelessly tossed aside his spear and waddled his way up the stairs. The mannequins facepalmed behind him.

The stairs went on for a really long time. He was pretty sure if he hadn't been hungry already, then going up them certainly would've made that happen. He even saw a bird out a window as he climbed up it.

Eventually, after going steps and steps and steps and _steps..._he finally reached the top and came face-to-face with a big pink door. He opened it, to be greeted by another pink room. This one, however, had two marble pillars serving as tiny pedestals in it.

On one was a collection of gems, including emeralds, rubies, and...sapphires! On the other was a very tasty-looking chocolate cake that kinda looked more like a pie, but whatever.

He walked towards the pedestal full of gems and licked his lips in anticipation. He had almost reached out and picked one up when he remembered he been grounded from sapphires.

"Oh...okay, okay, yeah. Well, I can just...pick out the sapphires and just the others, right?" He reasoned to himself.

He reached out to the gems, fully meaning to pick the sapphires up and toss them to the floor, but iron bars suddenly appeared from nowhere and encased the pedestal, denying him access.

"Oh." he muttered. Well, he supposed he was just gonna have to do without... he turned to leave, but then his stomach grumbled again, and even louder than before.

"Hrrm." He mumbled, knitting his brows as sigh of his confusion of what to do. He turned back, and noticed the pie-cake thing again.

"Well, it's better than nothing." Spike concluded. He went over to it, picked it up off its pedestal, sat down on the floor, setting it in his lap, and began scooping it up in his claws and shoveling it into his mouth.

* * *

When he woke up the next morning, Spike didn't really think too much of it. He wasn't exactly a seer, or anypony else who worries about what dreams and their symbolism meant. He did, however, notice that Twilight was few feet in front of him, sitting over her work table, probably gazing over her latest assignment.

But then he noticed the smell in the air. It was...the scent of cake!

"Twilight?" Spike asked, rising from his basket.

Twilight turned her head around, and he instantly could tell from the bags under her eyes how much sleep she had gotten last night. Of course, what was more telling; the fact he could tell how much sleep she had, or the fact that he could tell she had actually gotten quite a bit for her standards?

"Good morning, Spike." Twilight said serenely. "I'll bet you're wondering about...this." She scooted to the side, allowing Spike to see in full-view a chocolate cake that kinda looked more like a pie with whipped cream.

"Yeah. I am." Spike told her. _R-really, Twilight? You couldn't have just gone to Sugercube Corner?_

"Well, as you may have gathered, this is a cake."

"Uh, yeah...I got that much."

"This is a cake that was made by me."

"Okay?"

"This is a cake that was made by me for...my friend. The one I gave that jewel of yours to?"

"Uh-huh..." Spike nodded his head, motioning her to go on.

"I put a lot of time into his cake, just for her- _I mean them._" Twilight corrected quickly, covering her mouth with her hooves and blushing. "I didn't go to Sugercube Corner because I want to show them I am willing to put this kind of time and effort into our relationship. Now, the cake's instructions say to let it cool for several hours after it finishes baking. I don't have the time in my schedule to stay here and watch _and _still complete my errands for today."

Well, that explained that... "All right."

Twilight's face suddenly became worried and serious.

"I need you to promise me you won't touch it."

Spike scoffed and raised his hand. "Geez, Twilight! Relax! When have I ever touched something I wasn't supposed to?"

Twilight glared at him. "Do you _really _want me to answer that? Because I can think of quite a few..."

"Okay, okay." Spike said, waving his claws to calm. "I promise I won't touch it."

"Do I have your word you won't lay a finger on it?"

Spike stood up and heroically brought his arms across his chest. "You have my word, that I, Spike the dragon, will not lay a claw on that cake."

Twilight seemed satisfied by this. "Good." She said with a nod, and took off for the door. "If you need me, I'll be out at the market."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can handle things here by myself." Spike said, jumping out of his basket and getting out of the bedroom before Twilight closed the door behind them both.

"I'm counting on you to keep that promise." Twilight said as she walked down the stairs.

"Stop worrying so much!"

"I mean it, Spike!" Twilight shouted before closing the door to the library behind her.

Spike scoffed under his breath again once she had gone. Since when had he ever let her down before?

He looked at the stairway railing, and feeling rambunctious, he jumped on top of them and slid his way down to the foyer level. However, when he reached the end, he got the knob marking the railing right into his stomach, making him grunt and clench his stomach in pain. He fell off the railing to the side, and laid there miserably on the bottommost staircase for awhile.

Eventually, he manged to stop hurting enough to get up and limb his way to a beanbag chair that was in another part of the house. He may not have been seriously injured, but he certainly wasn't going to feel like doing anything physical for a good portion of today.

Reaching over into the drawer that was conveniently next to the beanbag, Spike pulled out a portable gaming system and turned it on. At least he'd be doing something. Seeing his high score from the last time he played it, he resolved to beat it.

He pushed the buttons madly and wildly, trying to make his little 8-bit…thing dodge and roll to avoid the enemy 8-bit things. The clicking sound was absolutely furious as he slogged through to achieve his goal.

He started wondering about the cake Twilight made...she had started on it last night, yet it needed to cool now? Shouldn't it have gone bad or something? Oh, maybe it's like one of those old folk recipes that take days to make, but feed a small village. If that was the case, Twilight must have spent a lot of time and effort on it...

Midway through, he suddenly felt uncomfortable. Like somepony was...watching him.

Putting his game on pause and setting it down, he raised up and peeked over the back of the beanbag.

Oh. Owloyicous was perched up on a bookshelf, watching with bemusement as Spike played his little game. He seemed less interested in the game itself and more in watching Spike expend effort.

Spike narrowed his reptilian eyes, intensely distrustful of the owl...as always.

He felt his tummy rumble. He didn't even realize he had yet to eat breakfast. He got up off his beanbag and went into the kitchen. He started searching for something to eat. However, his search quickly proved fruitless. There were no gems in the pantry, the boxed instant-fix oatmeal was too low to feed him, let alone a grown mare. There were no granola bars in the cabinets, or fruits on the counter, or even a sweet treat in the fridge.

"There's only one thing to do!" Spike declared to himself proudly, pointing a claw skyward. He had to go pick some gems from his 'secret' stash in the bedroom.

"Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" Spike dashed back into the other room to save his game... only to see Owloyicous perched on the beanbag, staring at it blankly. The owl turned its head around to look at him, and the look those big yellow eyes were giving was almost...mocking.

"Hey, shoo!" Spike said, rushing to defend his game from this blasted avian who just _so badly wanted_ to make his life miserable (right?). "Get away from that!"

Owloyicous took the hint, and took to the air. Spike picked up his game, and saw something incredulous.

The owl had been playing the game. Not only that, but his high score was three times Spike's best so far! Unbelievably!

"I...how did you..." Spike muttered, breath taken away. Owloyicous just proudly slapped a wing against his chest.

Spike shook his head, and his stomach growled again. He had to get into the bedroom. He ran up the stairs and grabbed the knob to turn it, but...it was locked. Twilight must have locked it on accident as they were exiting the bedroom.

Unless...she did it on purpose...no, no! She didn't have _that _little faith in him, did she?

He scratched his chin, wondering what to do. He wasn't exactly the keeper of the keys in the library...

"Ah-ha!" He exclaimed, seeing a loose paper clip on the floor. He picked up and shoved it into the keyhole, trying to get it unlock the tumblers, but he lacked the ingenuity of thieves that made them able to use such tiny things as lock picks. He pulled the paper clip out to see it bent and twisted beyond repair.

"Oh well..." Spike tossed it over his shoulder. Maybe he could wait until Twilight came back, and get her help finding something to eat...

His stomach growled.

He couldn't wait that long.

He thought of what he could possibly do, then a light bulb went off in his head.

He snapped his fingers at the brilliance of it, then zoomed out from where he was to the library's main entrance.

Now outside, beholden to the grand library tree in all its uncaring, time-proven glory, he rounded around the house over to the other side. He breathed on his claws, rubbed them together, then dub them into the tree bark and began climbing. He was going to get in through the window! Brilliant!

As he dug his claws from one piece of branch to the next, he realized this was going to take awhile...ooh, he was probably going to work up even more of an appetite than he had before!

He was nearly to the top when he saw a robin eying him curiously.

"What are you looking at it, huh!?" Spike screamed at it. "Haven't you ever seen a dragon climbing a treehouse before!?"

The robin, seeing its company was not appreciated around here, wisely made the decision to _vamanos. _

Spike dug his claws into the bark, and stopped just before the window to savor his victory. He did it. He climbed all the way up the bottom of the treehouse to the top.

Pushing the window open -thankfully, it wasn't locked- he managed to crawl inside and fall to the floor.

"Ha-ha!" He laughed to himself. He dashed over to the drawer and pulled it open, getting ready to gorge himself on his private stash...

Only to see all had left were sapphires. Aaah! Curse words! He was so close!

His tummy rumbled again. What could he do? He was hungry, but Twilight would get onto him for eating sapphires when he was grounded from them...

He sighed, wondering what to do, when he turned his head around and saw the pie-cake Twilight had made.

Hmm. He had two options here; either go back against his word and have a slice of the cake, or defy Twilight's authority and eat the sapphires.

He weighed which one would make her more upset. Sapphires, or cake? Authority, or word?

Mmm...she was something of a control freak at times, so he decided to nick a slice off the cake instead.

Just one. Neither she nor her friend would even notice it was gone.

Using his pointed tail, he carefully cut a thin slice of the cake off and ate it.

"Wow!" Spike muttered after swallowing. "This is...really good! I never knew Twilight could bake so well...I didn't think she could cook this well, either!"

He felt himself go into a daze...

* * *

"Oooh... Huh?" Spike woke from his daze to find himself lying on the floor, chocolate smeared all over his face, crumbs falling from his claws, and the empty cake pan resting on his full stomach.

"Oh no! Oh man!" Spike gasped, gripping his cheeks in terror. "What am I gonna do? Twilight is really gonna let me have it for this! No, no...she'll understand, won't she? I was hungry, right?"

Spike quickly got up and set the pan back down where it was.

"There." Spike said to himself in denial. "Like nothing even happened. I'll bet she won't even notice it."

Spike looked down the empty pan again.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Spike mumbled to himself. There was _no way_ Twilight wasn't going to notice _that._

Realizing that he couldn't salvage this situation, he made his way to the restroom and washed off as much of the chocolate as he could. Maybe if had access to time travel, he could go back and have enough time to copy Twilight's recipe. But he didn't, so he couldn't.

He was trying to think of what to do when he heard the absolute worst sound in the world.

"Spike! I'm home!"

Oh no. Spike clawed at his face. He rushed out the restroom to the foyer to greet Twilight, who had some grocery sacks on her hindquarters.

"Great to see ya, Twilight, the number one most powerful unicorn in Equestria!" Spike said, giving her a thumbs up.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Oookay? Anyways, I got some gems for you today. I figured your stash is probably running low." She levitated out a paper bag full of gems from her sacks and placed into Spike's claws.

"You shouldn't have." Spike said with a smile.

_No, really. You shouldn't have. Especially not when you see what I did to the cake._

Twilight levitated the bags off her back and onto the kitchen table. "I'm going to go check on the cake."

"Okay!" Spike lied, giving another thumbs-up.

Twilight glared at his odd behavior. She gave him a suspicious look before proceeding up the stairs. Was she on to him? If she wasn't, she certainly would be soon.

"That's funny...why is the door to the bedroom locked?"

Spike closed his eyes, hearing the door lock click open. He had probably locked it in his panic when he came out of the room...

He kept waiting for Twilight to let out a high-pitched, horrified scream, and then scream his name with a righteous indignation.

Instead, he heard a soft gentle coo. "Spike? Would you mind coming up here too terribly much?"

Spike gulped, but complied, walking up the staircase to his coming doom. He stood outside the door, where Twilight could see him.

Twilight was staring the pan, and noticed his reluctance to come in. She jerked her head for him to come here. "Come in, Spike." She said softly.

"No thank you." Spike declined.

Twilight gave him an imperious iron look. Spike suddenly found himself moving against his will, and the door slammed behind him. Was she really so mad she was willing to use magic on him like that!?

"Explain this to me." Twilight said, brandishing the empty cake pan where he could see it.

"Well..."

"And don't you _dare_ lie to me." Twilight snapped sharply. Was it just his imagination running wild from his fear, or was her coat getting darker, and the shadows in the room getting longer?

Spike gulped, figuring it was probably best to just come clean. "I..was hungry, really really hungry, and my stash only had sapphires left in it, so I figured it would probably be better to eat the cake than the sapphires...I didn't mean to eat it all! I only wanted one slice, and-"

"_Shut up!_"

Spike did so. He was getting really worried now. It wasn't like Twilight to be so verbally abusive.

"I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses. Let me put this in _perspective_ for you." Twilight rasped, pacing back and forth in a straight line, her hooves thudding heavily against the wood. Her horn lit up and produced sparks, creating a firework puppet show like the one that this one azure unicorn had when she came into town...

There was the cake, a pile of sapphires, Twilight, himself, and a copy of himself with his colors inverted, probably meant to represent Twilight's friend.

"Let's say you ate your sapphires instead." Twilight started, making her puppet Spike eat the sapphires. "I still have the cake. I can still give it to my friend. I add another day of you not being allowed to eat sapphires to compensate. No problem, right?"

Spike remained silent.

"_Right,_ Spike!?"

"Right!" Spike squeaked.

"But you ate the cake."

The cake puppet disappeared.

"What exactly do I do now, hmm? Give my friend your sapphires? Yes? No? ...What?"

Spike gulped, not knowing what to answer, but also able to tell she'd blow up at him any minute now if he didn't say something. "...Awww, come on, Twi! I was stuck between two bad options, and I...I choose the wrong one." Spike rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Twilight turned away from him and looked over the empty pan, contemplating it.

"Aw, come on! It's not the end of the world. You can make another cake, can't you? Your friend will understand, won't she?"

Twilight slowly craned her neck back to him.

"I know my friend will understand." Twilight said as she began to stalk towards him.

"I know I can make another cake." Spike began backing up, but he found himself pressed up against the door.

"I know it's not the end of the world! The cake is not the problem! The problem...is _you._"

Spike's jaw dropped. "Me!?"

"Yes, you. You gave me your word, Spike. You promised me you wouldn't touch it. You said one thing and did another. How am I supposed to trust you now, Spike? That cake was _special_ to me!"

"Well...one from Sugercube Corner would be better anyway, right!?"

Oh. Bad move.

Twilight's eye twitched. "Did you hear ANYTHING I said before I left this morning!? Do you just hear 'blah blah blah' when I talk!?"

Spike bit his lip, his heart racing and his chest heaving with heavy breaths as he broke into a sweat.

"You know what the worst part is? The worst part, is I can understand you hitting Sweetie Belle like you did. I know...what's like to be so far gone into your fantasy..." Twilight's voice started to crack. "You don't even realize reality..." She shook her head. "And I can forgive you for that, even if Rarity and Sweetie Belle can't."

_Oh, please don't say that, Twilight._ Spike thought. _Please don't say Rarity can't forgive me._

"But going back on your word like this! Inexcusable, I don't care HOW hungry you were! You should have ate the sapphires! You might have broken the rules, but at least you would've kept your promise! I...I..."

Twilight stammered, then stopped. The pause in her speech was one of the most terrifying things Spike had ever seen.

But even that didn't quite compare to what she said next. He had truly been underestimating how far gone she was until she said-

"I should spank you."

* * *

**Author's Notes for "Promises"  
**

**One thing I notice between this and last chapter was a lot of focus on Twilight and later Pinkie's uncertainty about their relationship. Which, while an important and integral part of the story, I'm not confident in the balance between it and the focus on Spike. I'm still happy with the way the chapter came out, of course, but I just...wanted to note that.**

**I'm also trying to make sure this remains similar to HVP, without just _being_ HVP with Spike in place of Twilight.**

**Also, someone pointed out that "Her Void Pink" and this as well as a sort of grammar no-no in that adjectives (Pink, Grey) are supposed come _before_ the noun, but it's not ... 'built' that way in my head. What it is a truncation of the full sentences; **

**"Her Void, de-void of Pink" and  
**

**"His Vector, in a Grey area."**

**Mid-way through writing this, about the part where Rarity tells Twilight what happened, I started getting concerns about pacing (as that has been something of a sore point for my writing before) so I very briefly considered cutting the parts leading up to and about him eating the special cake out and putting it as it's own chapter...but I realized there wasn't enough_ content_ in that to fill out it's own chapter. So, it stayed the same. I also consider including it the previous chapter, but I figured Chapter 2 was too soon to end on an "Oh (Swear word of your choice)" moment.  
**

**Also, consider Rarity's dialog a red flag; this will have more..._ risque_ elements than Her Void Pink did.**


	4. Kisses

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 4**

**Kisses **

* * *

Spike had his back to the door, Twilight's breath heaving from her nose into his. He tried to reached for the doorknob, but it was locked, and in his panic, he couldn't think to move his claw up and unlock it.

Twilight pushed her hoof into his neck, pinning him to the door. Ooow! Was she normally this strong? He struggled and flailed for all the good it would do.

"Stop flailing and take your punishment like a_ mature dragon!_" Twilight snapped at him.

"I'm not a mature dragon!" Spike yelled, half-hoping his admission of such might persuade Twilight to go easier on him.

Twilight gestured her neck to the cake pan. "I know that. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this problem."

Spike started hyperventilating. He had never been spanked before, and he had only heard vaguely about it, but from what he heard, it was not a pleasant experience. Ironically, it was just then his salvation came- and from his stomach, no less.

He belched out a plume of emerald flames that turned into a misty vapor, which itself turned into a floating scroll, embossed with the royal seal of Canterlot.

Twilight alternated a glare between the scroll and Spike. She took her hoof off Spike's neck and focused on the scroll, using her magic to unfurl it. She mumbled the words on it as she read them.

Spike turned around and began fiddling with the door's lock. Then he felt a painful weight on his tail.

"Where do you think you're going?" Twilight inquired, pressing the weight of her leg onto his tail while at the same time never taking her eyes off the letter.

Spike just stood there, waiting anxiously for Twilight to finish the letter so he could get this over with it. Although, he was starting to think about how the Princess had somehow managed to send a letter just in time to interrupt...

"Aaaah!" Twilight swore after she had finished. "That letter wasn't even important! There was nothing in there that couldn't have waited until we finished your punishment!"

Twilight picked Spike up off the ground, his head hanging upside down while she held him by the tail.

Yeah. She _definitely_ wasn't always this strong.

Twilight stared at him for awhile as he bobbed back and forth from his perch.

"Uh...Twilight?"

"I'm trying to decide whether I want to use a tool or my bare hoof." Twilight explained. "We don't have a paddle, so..."

"We do have wooden spoons!" Spike pointed out, thinking maybe if he helped, Twilight wouldn't hit him as hard.

"No, no...those are too...too..."

Spike waited for a minute as Twilight trailed off into silence.

"...Too?"

"Too spoony."

_What!? _Spike exclaimed in his head. What did that mean, and what weird alien planet did Twilight get that word from? A wooden spoon is too... spoony to spank him with? At this point, he was starting to question whether or not he really did anything wrong, and if Twilight was just crazy.

Deciding she probably was, Spike decided not to take this lying down (or whatever position Twilight intended to put him in...)

He turned his head around and belched out a fireball on the door, burning a hole through. The unexpected release of fumes startled Twilight into dropping him. Seeing his chance, he jumped through the hole he made in the door and started running down the stairs.

"You're only making this worse on yourself!" Twilight shouted at him through the door. She backed up, then rammed the broken door with her horn, flinging it open.

Spike huffed and puffed as he ran down the stairs. He could Twilight's hoofsteps right behind him. When he got the end of the staircase, he jumped to put more distance between them. Just in time, as well, as Twilight attempted to pounce on him, but missed him and slammed her face into the floor.

His window of opportunity to get away was cut short by Twilight levitating him into the air with her magic. She turned him around so they face each other and stomped towards him. She growled. Spike flailed his limbs until one- his leg- hit her horn, thus disrupting the flow of her magic. She rubbed her horn sorely while he made his escape.

"I'm going to hit you extra hard for that!" Twilight shouted at him, shaking her hoof in fury.

Spike ran like his life depended on it. Of course it kinda did, but not really. While a spank may hurt, it wasn't lethal... unless a medieval mace was used for a paddle or something. Spike didn't think Twilight was that far gone...yet.

Ducking into a broom closet, he slammed the door shut and sat down, instinctively putting his thumb in his mouth and sucking on it despite having out-grown the practice years ago. While uncommon, it wasn't unheard for a pony (or young dragon, in this case) to regress back to abandoned behaviors when deep in fear.

The broom tassels covering his eyes were kinda soft and nice. Perhaps not much, but they were good comfort in his current frame of mind.

Suddenly he heard a high-pitched whining sound. A floating bluish orb phased through the door and regarded him curiously. That was kinda weird. He raised his claw to poke it, and it seemed to recoil his from his touch and draw back on the outside of the closet.

Then he heard the doorknob clatter, and his heart stopped. The door pulled open, and he could see Twilight giving him a raised eyebrow.

"You do realize, with my magic, there's really nowhere in the library you can hide in for long?"

That was a good point... Spike raised his claw and swatted the broom that fell over his face, making it smack into Twilight's face. While she attempted to disentangle herself from the cloth, he dashed out and ran past her. He would've feel bad about it in any other circumstance, but this would be the exception.

After removing the broom from her face and attempting to spit out loose hairs from it, Twilight turned towards him and growled, holding the broom in her hooves.

"Get back here!"

Running as fast his little feet could waddle him, Spike ran into the bathroom on the level of the library they were in. Once they were in there, he crawled up the sink and pulled open the mirror, which doubled as a cabinet for assorted supplies, mostly in the realm of antacids and hair or scale treatments.

Spike huffed and puffed, trying to catch his breath while waiting for Twilight to come for him again. His plan was to use the mirror to smack her in the face, hopefully catching her off-guard enough for him to get out of the library as a whole.

"Spike!" He could hear her scream from another room.

The bathroom door was flung brutally open, and there she was, right on cue, still snarling, huffing, and fuming. It was like he wasn't even dealing with Twilight, but some sort of shock trooper infantry sent to mete out his punishment.

"Look, Spike." Twilight said, trying to sound like she was being reasonable, but Spike knew otherwise. "The longer we do this, the more we prolong your punishment. So if you can give up nicely and quietly right now, we can do it and be done with it. Doesn't that sound fair?"

"Uh..." Spike stuttered. Twilight abandoned her facade and stomped forward, growling deeply. Spike jumped out of the cabinet just she lunged forward at him, using his tail to swung the mirror into Twilight's face. He could hear the glass shatter, and felt it tickle at his haunches as the shards went flying. He hit the ground with a hard "Ooof!", and rolled over on to his feet, feeling pretty good about himself, as that went exactly the way he planned it for it to.

"Oh my gosh!" Spike exclaimed, seeing Twilight covered her face with her hooves, little bits of glass sticking out of her sides. "Twilight, are you okay?"

Twilight slowly, and surprisingly calmly, pulled her hooves down to show her face, which also had quarter-inch shards poking at it, and a few open cuts here and there...but she was obviously still furious at him.

"I'm going to apply some medicine, and when I get done, not only I am going to spank you extra hard, but I'm going to spank you twice. " She glanced around the room and levitated some tweezers to herself. As she turned to the remnants of the mirror to pick the shards in her face out, she gave him a polite suggestion. "Why don't you take the time to get a head start before I start chasing you again?"

Spike nodded and took the suggestion straight to heart. Dashing out the room with his every reserve of speed, he blitzed through the hallway so fast he nearly skidded into the staircase. Although he managed to break early enough to avoid that collision, he couldn't relax, as Twilight would soon be chasing him again. He didn't notice Owloyicous perk up at the sound of his feet going so fast across the room.

Spike ran through the next room, hoping to get to the library entrance and bolt out into the Carousel Boutique, where Rarity would forgive him any transgression when she heard his tale of woe about how Twilight was planning to spank him.

He could already hear the sympathy in her voice now... "Well, isn't that grand! If you ask me, it's light punishment for what you did to Sweetie Belle!" …wait, that wasn't sympathetic in the slightest! Oh, whatever. He would think more about it once he had actually gotten out of the house.

The door was just a few steps ahead now... another few steps, just one more burst of speed. Another dash, bolt or blitz and he would be home free.

A fireball of reddish-purple magic whizzed past his head and hit the doorknob dead-on, causing a coat of bluish ice to wash over the doorknob. He looked over his shoulder and to his horror, saw Twilight standing there with her teeth showing, having applied some ointment to her face and picked clean all the glass.

"Trying to run away? I can't believe you. After all the time I spent raising you, educating you, feeding you when you were too young to do it yourself, and you want to run away from home because of one little spanking?"

Spike decided not to correct her on the obvious oxymoron in one 'little spanking'. It was true, that Twilight was essentially his mother...

"Fine." Twilight growled, flailing her legs to show her dismissal of him. "Run away from home. See if I care!"

Spike blinked, wondering if maybe he alienated Twilight so badly with the eating of her pie that she wouldn't have minded him running off, never to be seen by her again.

"Really?"

"No!" Twilight hissed. "You're a baby dragon! Your claws are barely sharp enough to cut paper, and you can barely breath fire! I can't let you run off by yourself!"

Twilight stomped forward, the unnecessary effort she was putting into her every step making the vibrations in the floor turn into an echo which made Spike even more afraid.

"But at the same time, I can't let you go unpunished for eating Pi- my friend's cake."

Twilight reared up before jumping at Spike with all her strength. Spike barely managed to skip to the side and avoid her so he could go running back into the foyer. He heard her scream in frustration as he rushed towards one of the other rooms of the library. He got there in time before she could recover and catch up with him, and he didn't notice Owloyicous fly into the room with him as he slammed the door behind him and locked it. For all the good it would do.

Spike panted and huffed. He was really starting to run out of energy, and needed a break. Twilight, however, seemed like she just keep going on forever until she caught him and bended him over backwards for his punishment.

"Hoo?" Owloyicous hooted, making his presence know.

"Owloyicous!" Spike exclaimed. "Oh, thank Celestia you're here! Twilight's gone crazy!"

"Hoo?"

"Twilight, that's who! I got hungry, and I ate a cake of her's that she made for a very special friend of hers, and now she's trying to spank me!" Spike put his claws together and got down on his knees. "Please! You gotta help me! You just gotta!"

Owloyicous put his wing to his chin in thought. Spike's heart started skipping beats, going miles a minute, thinking that Owloyicous was having to think about whether or not to help him. He had no idea that, in actuality, Owloyicous was thinking about Twilight's very special friend...

With a hoof and a flap of his wings, Owloyicous flew out the window, leaving Spike alone.

"Oooh!" Spike groaned, crumbling to the floor in a fetal position. He started sucking on the tip of his tail the way he did when he was just recently hatched. "Great...first I hit Sweetie Belle, then Rarity tells on me to Twilight. Then I eat the cake, Twilight's going to spank me, and the owl has ABANDONED ME! Why couldn't I have just ate the sapphires!?"

Spike decided to look on the bright side.

"Well, at least it can't get any worse."

The ground holding Spike up shook like an earthquake had hit the place, and he tensed up. Getting back to his feet, he peered out the keyhole to see Twilight approaching the room, walking in slow, deliberate, forceful steps to really drive home the idea that was the end of the line.

Spike threw himself against the door and used his claws to pull down his eyelids. Perhaps if he kept them closed and didn't say anything, it would be over sooner.

He heard the door squeak open...but not the one he was hiding behind, as he could still feel himself pressed against the door.

"Pinkie Pie!?"

Spike got up from his slump and peered through the keyhole again. Twilight was utterly stopped in her army march by the appearance of Pinkie Pie, who at present, was kissing Twilight on the side of the neck. The pink pony looked like a vampire, draining the blood from Twilight, her unwitting victim.

What Spike found most bizarre out of anything, was that Twilight seemed to be enjoying it, her eyes blank and uncaring, her mouth half-open. Sparkles seem to be floating in front of her face like she was hypnotized. There was a pop like a balloon being pierced as Pinkie pulled her lips away.

Twilight sighed, any and all traces of frustration or outrage vanished in their entirety. Twilight nuzzled into Pinkie's chest, and Pinkie ran her hoof along Twilight's locks.

"Pinkie Pie...my sweet treat. Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?"

Owloyicous appeared, landing into Pinkie's mane with a sort of 'Pomf!' noise.

"What's this Owloyicous is telling me about you trying to spank Spike?"

Twilight's face contorted wildly, like this was the first she had heard of any spanking. "W-what? Oh...oh, now I remember..." Twilight put her hooves over her head as everything came back to her. "He...broke a promise he made me! He-he needs to be taught a lesson!"

Pinkie raised her eyebrow.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! He ate a cake I was going to give to a-a friend after I specifically told him not to!"

Pinkie adopted a face of utmost and total suspicion, with doubt clearly written into her features. "Would this friend be...me?"

Twilight collapsed onto her haunches, the way she when she was overwhelmed.

"Y-yes." Twilight admitted, her eyes starting to moisten at all the implications she was thinking of.

"So you are sure he needs to be a taught a lesson?"

"Yes!" Twilight snapped, latching onto the first indication she could have been in the right in any way.

"Agreed...but are you sure spanking him is the way to do it? Are you sure...you're not just angry you made something special for me that you can't give me because of him, and you're taking it out on him?"

"No..." Twilight whined, speaking shamefully low in her humiliation.

"I was spanked when I was a foal." Pinkie revealed, putting her hoof against her chest. "I wouldn't wish that on anypony."

"Oh..." Twilight's had begun to cry freely by now. "Oh, Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry. This whole time, I was telling Spike he was the problem...but he wasn't. The problem...is me."

"Apology accepted!" Pinkie declared happily. "...But I think you and I both know I'm not the one you need to apologize to."

"N-no." Twilight admitted, wiping her tears away. "C-could you get him for me? Given what I nearly did, I don't think he'll want to see me right now and I...would feel the same." Twilight pointed to the door. "He's in there."

Pinkie smiled and nodded, going over to the door.

Spike pulled back from the door, realizing Pinkie would figure he had been spying if she found him right up against the door.

The door opened, and there was Pinkie. She was smiling kindly. "Hey, Spike."

"...Hey." Spike said, struggling to understand the interaction he had just saw between her and Twilight.

"Twilight's calmed down now. She wants to apologize."

"Uh-huh."

Spike nodded slowly at first, and he continued to nod slowly, his mind still hung on what happened before. The way Pinkie's kiss seem to just drain Twilight of all coherent thought.

"Spike?"

"Huh!? Oh, yeah..."

Pinkie maneuvered to his side, and wrapped her leg around his shoulders as she guided him towards Twilight. Twilight was looking away, at the walls, the hall, the light bulb on the ceiling...anything but meeting his gaze.

"Spike..." Twilight spoke once Pinkie had pushed him close enough to her. "I am so sorry I lost control like that. I just- I just really wanted to give my friend something special, so when I couldn't...I just blew up. Can you ever forgive me?"

Spike was much too relaxed that he wasn't going to be spanked to really give any thought to Twilight's plea. After a moment, he got over it and started thinking about what she said. Given that she was his mother, after all, he could easily forgive her for quite a lot of things...but he decided to have some fun with it first.

"I don't know..." Spike drawled, cupping his chin. "You did scare me pretty badly when you said you were going to spank me."

Twilight's jaw dropped, but she pulled it shut and stomped off with her tail swishing. Pinkie seemed most distraught.

"Ooh, please forgive her, Spike?" Pinkie beseech-ed him. "She didn't mean it!"

"Well..." Spike said haughtily, raising his claw. It was then that Twilight returned, stomped on Spike's foot, making his mouth hinge open like a trash can, and shoved so many sapphires into his mouth that his cheeks had to bulge out to hold them all in.

Spike closed his mouth and attempted to start chewing. He hugged Twilight, who hugged him back. "I forgive you!" Spike yelled, although it was muffled.

"What have I told you about talking with your mouth full?" Twilight snapped at him, though he could tell she meant it in jest.

They all shared a good laugh together. After they finished, Spike lowered himself to the floor to work on trying to swallow the load of sapphires Twilight had force-fed him. It meant a lot for her to choose to feed him sapphires, after all the drama they just went through. While he sat there, happily enjoying himself, Pinkie and Twilight locked eyes.

Pinkie offered her hoof. Twilight bowed and took it like a gentlecolt, gently taking Pinkie by said hoof and steering her towards the kitchen.

"C'mon. Maybe we can make a new cake together, and it'll taste better when we both work on it." Twilight whispered to Pinkie.

Pinkie giggled. "Probably. Besides, I should make sure you didn't put a love potion in it!"

Twilight was incredulous at the notion. "Pinkie Pie, how can you even say that!? You know strong my magic is...if I used a spell on you..."

"Yeah...if you used a spell on me..." Pinkie muttered, looking away.

"I would never do that." Twilight whispered, nuzzling into Pinkie's neck. "Your love is so sweet, and tastes so delicious... I wouldn't want to_ corrupt_ the taste like that. _Teehee!_ It-it means too much to me for me to use a spell on you."

Twilight really didn't seem to understand how scared Pinkie was by her causal joking. Pinkie valued her independence a lot more than Twilight seemed to realize. Twilight didn't think too much of it; didn't all their friends know her well enough she wasn't the type to resort to artificial love?

Spike eventually realized he been left alone, and looked down the hallway to see Twilight's tail wrapped around Pinkie's. Pinkie's tail appeared to be hesitating, but eventually wrapped back around Twilight's.

Spike scratched his head in confusion as he continued enjoying his sapphires.

What was going on between those two?

* * *

**Author's Notes for "Kisses" **

**SHADOW HOOVES  
**

**_Quit leaving reviews in character._ It makes it very hard to take anything away from your review - if can even be called that anymore- when ALL you say is "King Sombra is my father, OMG Celestia stole my Orb!" **

**Don't use your role-play as an excuse to ignore the rules of grammar. That's unacceptable. The ONLY reason you should have trouble with grammar is because you don't yet fully grasp a second language you're trying to know your grammar is wrong...and yet you just dismiss it as being one of your 'kind' that you role-play as. **

**SO. VERY. NOT. OKAY.  
**

**So sorry to ALL THE OTHER RESPECTABLE people reading this, but for SOME ODD REASON, I can't send a P.M to the person this is directed to. I can only _speculate_ as to why that is.**

**On a happier note, a much happier shout-out to 'Tails absolution' for talking to me so openly about and reading my stories.**

**I like the idea of Pinkie being afraid of Twilight using a spell to charm her...**

**Sorry for the long time to update.**


	5. Sharing

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**By Darkryt Orbinautz**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 5**

**Sharing**

* * *

Spike continued to enjoy his sapphires, even with the question of what Pinkie and Twilight were doing filling him with unease at the back corners of his mind. After a while, the mass of sapphires in his mouth reduced enough for him to swallow. At first, he was a little disappointed that he couldn't enjoy the taste on his tongue anymore, but that faded with the huge clump of gem shards dropped into his stomach, filling it up almost to the point of bursting.

"Mmm..." Spike rubbed his stomach, possibly too full to even bother moving. He briefly entertained the possibility of falling onto his back and going right to sleep for the rest of the day...but then he probably would spend the whole night awake. But then he heard light, squeaky giggling. His senses became once again alert, and he tried to get onto his feet...but being so full, he fell backwards. He sighed, rolled over, and carried on. He went around the corner, and peered into the kitchen, where Twilight and Pinkie were sitting, and he found they were indeed the source of the giggling.

Spike also found they were carrying on a conversation he was not privy to, but on top of that, they seemed to know what the other was talking about, never finishing a sentence before the other introduced a new element, only for that element to also go unfinished.

"D-do y-you remember the time-?" Twilight asked Pinkie, pounding her hoof against the table to contain her laughter.

"With the-"

"And the-"

"On top of the-"

"And then Applejack-"

"Before Rarity-"

"That was hilarious!"

They shared a healthy bout of laughter- laughter was the best medicine, after all. Especially after almost doing something as damaging to a relationship as a spanking.

Twilight's laughter cut out after a moment, and she took in a deep breath to regain the air she had lost on her giggles. "Hoo! Thanks, Pinkie...I needed that." Twilight leaned over to Pinkie's and wrapped her in a hug.

"You're welcome." Pinkie answered, stroking Twilight's mane soothingly. Although Twilight appeared to be quite content with letting Pinkie stroke her, Pinkie appeared to be unnerved by how relaxed Twilight became.

"It's really lucky you came over when you did..." Twilight murmured. "If you had been a second later, I might have reached Spike and...oh, it's just so awful, Pinkie! If I had spanked, I don't know if he could ever have forgiven me..."

"It's all right." Pinkie assured her, wrapping her front legs around Twilight's body. "I forgave my parents for it, and I'm sure Spike would have, too...eventually. Make sure you thank Owloyicous. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known."

Spike blinked, confused at this. Owloyicous was his arch-enemy! His rival for Twilight's favor. His competition for work. Why would the owl go get Pinkie to help save Spike from Twilight's misdirected rage?

Twilight drew away from Pinkie, cupped Pinkie's cheek, then leaned in and gave her a smooch on the cheek. Pinkie looked resigned to this, but she showed no resistance. Even when Twilight start moaning, taking in the taste of Pinkie's neck, and began trailing her hooves down Pinkie's chest and back in a way Spike suddenly imagined Rarity doing to him when he saw it. He quite liked the picture his head was forming, of Rarity doing to him as Twilight was doing Pinkie, holding him tightly, kissing his neck with her soft, pale lips...

He scratched his chin, starting to wonder how he could make his fantasy into reality, when Twilight noticed him.

"S-Spike!" Twilight stuttered, pulling away from Pinkie – a motion she found extremely painful. "What are you doing there?"

"Uh...it's the kitchen?" Spike responded, confused. The kitchen was an open area, wasn't it?

"Go to your room!" Twilight snapped, wrapping her hooves around Pinkie possessively, her tail lashing out and tying Pinkie's hind legs together.

"But-!" Spike tried to protest.

"Leave Pinkie and I alone!"

"But-"

Pinkie rolled her eyes, having had enough of this. She rubbed her hoof against Twilight's chin, causing Twilight's tail to drop off Pinkie's legs like a dead snake as Twilight's eyes turned glassy and glazed.

"You don't have to go to bed, Spike." Pinkie told him sweetly. "Twilight just really wants to be alone with me right now." She turned to Twilight and whispered in her ear enticingly. "Isn't that right, sweetie?"

Twilight's only response was to moan, at first, so enraptured was she by the feeling of Pinkie's hoof on her chin and quiet voice in her ear. "Oooh...w-what? Did you ask a question? Alone...yeah. That."

"There," Pinkie said, still speaking enticingly before turning back to Spike and switching her tone from seductive temptress back to sweet old granny. "See, Spike? You're not in trouble, Twilight just wants to spend time with me right now."

Spike scratched his head. "What's going between you two?"

Twilight ignored, only interested in pressing her head further into Pinkie's chest, pushing herself further into Pinkie Pie herself.

Pinkie's mouth opened, then closed. "...Honestly, Spike, I don't know." She tried to hide her uncertainty behind a smile. "Go have some fun."

Spike stayed, still wondering what was happening, before obliging her request and going to another section of the library. Perhaps he'd pick up his game again and try to beat Owloyicous' high score.

"Twilight?" Pinkie asked, a wariness in her voice that would made alarm bells go off in Twilight's head, if her thought processing wasn't reduced to one-track mindedness by Pinkie's touch. "I think I should go spend time with Spike."

"Okay..." Twilight droned.

Pinkie grimacing, not liking what she was about to say anymore than Twilight was going to.

"I mean, without you, Twilight."

Twilight had the reaction...that Pinkie was expecting, pretty much. "Nooo!" Twilight, sounding like a spoiled child, hugged Pinkie far tighter than necessary. "You're mine! You're mine..._mine!_"

Pinkie tried to comfort her. "Twilight, please. You- you sound like a foal." Pinkie proceeded to demonstrate how, despite all her spaciness, she was able to identify what should and should not have been done in a relationship in ways Twilight couldn't. "Spike needs to get used to having me around the house if we're going to be...this close to each other."

Twilight pouted, knowing Pinkie was right, but unable to bear the thought of Pinkie being away from her anymore than the reality of it.

"I'll come back." Pinkie tried to assure her, giving her another stroke through her purple hairs. Pinkie grabbed Twilight's cheeks and lifted her head up, then kissed her on the lips.

"MPH!" Twilight let out a muffled squeal of absolute pleasure. Pinkie made it last for a little while, trying to postpone breaking away so she could think of whether or not a slow pull or quick snap would let Twilight handle being without her. Twilight started trying to return it, causing Pinkie to be unable to decide and just quickly jerk away.

"Uhh!" Twilight moaned at her denial.

"I'll be back." Pinkie told her again, shaking her hips back and forth to wriggle out of Twilight's hold. "Okay?"

"Okay..." Twilight muttered, thought she didn't sound okay with it. Pinkie trotted out happily out of the room, calling Spike's name to draw his attention. She wasn't even gone for half a second before Twilight started feeling depressed, holding her head up with her hooves and sighing.

"Spike?" Pinkie yelled with her voice raised ever so softly. "Spike, are you there?"

"Yeah." Spike answered, stubby claws gnashing on the buttons of his game, determined to beat Owloyicous' score and prove he was the superior of the two, by earning a non-material aware in a digital world of no real consequence.

Pinkie rested her front leg against the door frame, admiring and envying Spike's carefree attitude. How she longed that she might join him there, absorbed in pixels and bits of otherwise meaningless data and just forget all the troubles of her world...the troubles of trying to love somepony back with all the strength and conviction that somepony had for her.

It wasn't that difficult to explain why Pinkie's and Twilight's affections for each other were so far apart. Pinkie had just some time ago been told of Twilight's crush, while Twilight had been nursing her lust for weeks before that, nurturing it, slowly molding it into the ultimate expression of affection.

Pinkie took her leg off the door and approached the soft recliner Spike was lying on. She grabbed his game and took it from his claw.

"Hey!" Spike protested, upset Pinkie would snatch his toys from him in such a rude manner.

Pinkie held up the game to her face and swept her gaze across the game screen. She chuckled lightly and shook her head, thinking of simpler, earlier games from another time that she used to play when she was younger. She pushed the pause button, and clicked the 'save game' option. She turned the game off and rested on the arm chair.

"Spike, I'd like you to spend some time with me." Pinkie informed him, sparing no bones and mincing no words.

Spike stared. "But...I thought Twilight wanted to be alone with you?"

Pinkie's eyelids lowered, and she looked to the door. Her face was so upside down. Spike was very disturbed by it. Pinkie almost seemed...mournful, and it was extremely startling to such a happy, perky bouncy pony be so downcast.

"We can't always get what we want." Pinkie said from out of nowhere.

Spike supposed that was true. He wanted Rarity to forgive him for hitting Sweetie Belle, but could he get that? He certainly hoped so. The idea Rarity would never look at him as anything other than a threat to her sister's safety again... that she wouldn't let him help with her many scavenger hunts for diamonds and such.

"Come on." Pinkie said, turning her rear to him and walking towards the door. "Let's play outside, huh? Get some fresh air!"

Spike would rather play his game and figure out how that accursed owl beat his high score so badly, but he supposed he had no choice but to comply. He knew Pinkie could sometimes force an issue without even realizing she was forcing it. Plus, Spike noted to himself as he followed Pinkie through the oaken halls of the library, he had noticed Twilight getting extra defensive of Pinkie recently. If there was something Pinkie wanted, Twilight got it. If there was something making Pinkie said, Twilight got (rid of) it.

Once outside, Spike took in a deep, deep breath of the crisp, crisp air. He had seriously underestimated how good a breath of fresh air was after the ordeal he went through with Twilight just now. The grass billowed in the wind, swaying side to side in a manner most relaxing to watch.

"Come on!" Pinkie yelped, a bit more cheerful than while they were still inside, gesturing Spike to follow her. "We're gonna play on the swing set!"

Spike liked that idea, but there were a few problems with that. The swingset was over by the school – and by extension, by Sweetie Belle- and they hadn't even told Twilight they were leaving. Going outside and playing around the house was one thing, but going all the way to the school? Twilight would have a fit.

"Uh, Pinkie, I don't think that's such a good idea...you know how Twilight gets when things aren't all neat and orderly."

Pinkie's face twitched, like she was trying not to grimaced. She muttered something under her breath that Spike couldn't catch, but he was fairly sure it had something to do with Twilight and her inane mechanisms for (attempting to) control the world around her.

Pinkie raised her hoof, signaling for Spike to wait, then whipped out a rubber … thing... from...somewhere on her body.

_Seriously, she's like a pocket._ Spike reflected. _Or maybe a black hole...a black hole that's pink. A pink hole? I don't know._

Pinkie took in a deep breath, and Spike noticed the little plastic insert on the side of the thing. It was something inflatable, whatever it was. Pinkie put her mouth to let and loose her deep breath, able to completely fill the inflatable device with one breath whereas most ponies would need the use of an air pump to fully inflate it.

The rubber thing popped up, sending out little spikes of balloons in staggered waves before completely popping up and revealing itself to be an...inflatable swing set.

Where in the wide-wide world of Equestria that Pinkie get an inflatable swing set? One so complicated that was completely functional, no less, the rubber chains having just enough clearance and space to move back and forth, just like on a real iron swing set.

"You want me to push you?" Pinkie generously offered to Spike, but he declined with a wave of his claw. He hopped up onto one of the swings, using the momentum of his jump to get a good head start on his swinging back and forth. Pinkie smiled, then climbed into the other swing and began swinging herself.

"You've been awfully quiet, Pinkie." Spike commented. How did it take this long for him to notice? Pinkie was usually chatting up a storm of thunder and snow with her chatterbox of a mouth.

"Yeah, I know..." Pinkie answered, her pink blur of a coat passing Spike back and forth as they swung back and forth, passing each other as they went by.

Spike wanted to make small talk and get Pinkie's mind off whatever was depressing her, but he couldn't do that very well when his own mind was still on what was going between her and Twilight. He didn't that was the very thing depressing her.

"What's going on between you and Twilight?"

Spike waited for an answer, and it took him a moment to realize the blur of pink that had been his company had disappeared. He stretched his legs and dragged them across the ground to bring himself to a stop, and looked to see Pinkie sitting still on her swing, biting on her lip, and looking everywhere and no where.

"I wish I could you, Spike." Pinkie told him, and he could see pain in her eyes. The kind of pain that only comes from seriously straining relationships, that appeared stable on the surface, but in truth, was as fragile as cement held together by water dissoluble glue. "I really do, but I can't."

"Pinkie Promise?"

"Worse."

Spike's mind came to a complete and utter halt. What was worse than a Pinkie Promise!? He had only ever heard stories of the kind of things that Pinkie did to ponies who broke their Pinkie Promise, and they had been terrifying, so what could be worse than that!?

"What could be worse than a Pinkie Promise!?"

"Something my Pinkie Sense can't control, that's what." Pinkie answered starkly.

"Mm." Spike supposed that made sense. When it came to Pinkie Sense and Pinkie Promises, it made sense that Pinkie would some sort of.._latent spy network_ or something, but something her Pinkie Sense couldn't control? Something her Pinkie Sense couldn't...sense!?

Spike decided it was best not to dwell, lest he drive him himself insane trying to understand what alien concept was so defiant as to be above or outside the purvey of Pinkie's Sense.

Just then, they heard a banging noise. They looked up to see the shadow of a hoof banging on the upper window of the upper library.

"Oh, for the love of..." Pinkie muttered, bringing her hoof over her face. "I'll take care of this. You stay here." Pinkie got off the swing and went into the library. Her tail gave an agitated flick. Spike gnawed on his fingernails, knowing whenever a pony's tail flicked, it meant they were mad.

* * *

Twilight lied there on the table, her hoof resting under her chip, propping herself up. She sighed. She rocked her head back and forth. Ever since Twilight had brought her relationship with Pinkie up from 'friend with a crush' to 'dating' she felt so empty without Pinkie around. Like two halves of the same whole. The yin to her yang, the limeade to her lemon candy, the pink to her...the pink to her...to, her, uh...

Pink pink pink pink_ pink!_

"Uh!" Twilight groaned and threw herself against her chair, making fantasies in her head of Pinkie touching her in all sorts of non-intimate ways that would bring feelings _like_ intimacy to her.

She looked over to the window, and heard some odd squeaky sounds coming from. Like...what was that, a rubber chain or something?

Curious piqued, Twilight got up from her chair and walked towards the window. What she saw she found adorable. Spike and Pinkie were playing on some of inflatable swing set. It was cute to see Spike and Pinkie bonding in such a way. Absolutely precious.

On the other hoof, seeing Pinkie...seeing Pinkie made all those feelings she had in her heart jostle around uncomfortably in her stomach.

"Nnn!" Twilight started banging on the window, wanting Her Pinkie to return to her. After a few thumps, Twilight put her hoof to her mouth in horror.

_Hold it in, Twilight, hold it in! What's wrong with me? Can't I let two of my friends bond a little without coming between them?_

...Come on. Where was it? She was expecting a voice in her head to answer something rude, but insightful and thought-provoking.

_Yes, but what you can't let happen is Your Pinkie bond with your assistant. _

Wait, wait, hang on...did she- did she just answer herself pretending to be a voice in her own head? Oh, what was wrong with her, indeed? She was coming apart at the seams!

_I'm...I'm undergoing Pinkie Withdrawal Syndrome!_ She realized. She put her hooves over her eyes and started to whine and cry, upset she couldn't bring herself to be away from Pinkie for even so much as a few minutes.

Twilight's eyes widened when she heard hoofsteps. She took one hoof off her vision to see a pink hoof a few feet before, waiting in the doorway. Twilight rolled over onto her stomach to met her love's gaze.

"Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh, Pinkie, I'm so sorry! I was trying to hold myself in, but I couldn't! I just couldn't! I know..." Her voice started to break, and the tears in her eyes kept flowing easily. "I know you and Spike need to get to know each other as family...but I-I just..."

"What?" Pinkie demanded, angered. Didn't Twilight realize how important it was for Spike to get closer to her if Pinkie and Twilight were going to spend all this time together? "You just _what_, Twilight?"

"I..." Twilight collapsed against the floor, her legs splaying outwards. "I've lusted after you for so long that you being gone is...so intensely tortuous for me... I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

Pinkie shook her head. It was hard loving a crazy pony. Most ponies would think "Oh, hey, wouldn't being crazy make you love her more?" well...in a perfect world, yes, but this wasn't a perfect world, this was the real world, and in the real world, crazy ponies needed advanced,sometimes risky medication and professional therapy.

Twilight insisted Pinkie was all the therapy Twilight needed. While Pinkie often was to make Twilight rest at ease, Pinkie was from a professional.

Frustrated with Twilight's inability to be apart from her even a measly second, Pinkie scoffed and turned to leave. At the last minute, she hestiated, then turned around grabbed Twilight's cheek.

"Here..." Pinkie said. "See if this will hold you in for awhile..." Pinkie gave her a kiss on the lips, and relaxed slightly. Enough for Twilight to rub her tongue in and around Pinkie's mouth. After a few delicious, delectable slurps, Pinkie pulled away.

"Think you can hold yourself together for a little while, at least?" Pinkie asked Twilight with an eyebrow. Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and weakly nodded. "Good..."

Pinkie got up and left. Twilight wiped another few tears from her eyes and got up herself, and wobbled towards the oven of the kitchen.

* * *

"Sorry about that." Pinkie apologized to Spike as she kicked the door shut behind her.

"It's cool." Spike assured her, even though he was still curious and completely confused as to what those two mares were doing with each other when he wasn't looking.

Pinkie looked at her inflatable swing set, taking a misty glare at it. She sighed. "I don't feel like swinging anymore."

"Oh...okay." He pretended to be all right with this, as Pinkie went and pulled the plug containing all the air in the swing set, but in reality, he was not okay with it at all. What happened to Pinkie? She usually tried to keep the fun going until it was dead (and even then, she refused to quit) but she never stopped it just as it was getting started.

"You want to talk?" Pinkie offered as she stomped over the deflated swing set, bringing it back down to a basic size where it fit back into wherever Pinkie had pulled it out of to begin with.

"Talk?" Spike questioned. When Pinkie talked, it was to talk like there was no tomorrow. Applejack and Fluttershy liked to talk quietly about things. Sometimes Rarity would, too, if she was caught in between jobs for clients and didn't have anything on her agenda. "About?"

"Whatever you like. The weather. Birds. Bees. Birds and bees. Whatever is upsetting you, maybe? Like, something that happened?"

That, Spike could work off of. What had been upsetting him... was Rarity.

"Rarity and me had a little scuffle recently..." Spike admitted. Pinkie's ears perked up, noticing his words.

"Oh?"

"Yeah...I kinda got lost in a fantasy and I...gave Sweetie Belle a black eye. I didn't mean to! But...neither of them seem to accept that."

"I'm sure they'll let it go in time." Pinkie said in a soothing tone of voice.

"Yeah, sure, why don't I just go make an apology sundae for them both, huh!?" Spike sarcastically exclaimed, waving his claws in the air. He wondered about the sapphires Twilight apologetically fed him, then his mind went back to the sundae. "Wait, that's it! A little while ago, Twilight made me an apology sundae for something she did! All I have to do is make one for Sweetie Belle and Rarity and everything will be all right!"

"I'll help you!" Pinkie declared.

"Oh..." Spike knew firsthoof how good Pinkie was with sweets, but he also she tended to get – like everything she did in life- a little crazy with it. He didn't want to make too big a mess in the kitchen. "I don't know, Pinkie...Twilight made me one, so I figured it would probably better to ask her for help, don't you think?"

Pinkie smiled mischievously.

_There's the Pinkie Pie I know!_

"Who do you think Twilight learned it from?" Pinkie said, wiggling her eyebrow.

Of course! Spike slapped himself for not realizing it earlier. Of course it would be Pinkie who taught Twilight how to make an apology sundae. Did he really think Twilight would come up with something like that herself? And they had been spending an inordinate amount of time together lately. If he was to seek help, who better the originator of the idea?

"Yeah! Let's do it!" Spike exclaimed, charging headfirst into the library, eager to earn Rarity's and to a lesser extent Sweetie Belle's, forgiveness.

The partners in crime in the making sped towards the kitchen, where Spike immediately dashed for the freezer and began digging out all the things a good sundae needed. Ice cream, cherries, bananas, syrup, the works, while Pinkie paused and noticed Twilight rummaging on the stove with a selection of pots and pans.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" Pinkie asked.

"I'm getting everything ready for us to bake our cake, silly!" Twilight chided her, turning around and rubbing Pinkie's chin. "Remember? That cake we were talking about that I wanted to give you? The one I tried to punish Spike for ruining? Happened a few hours ago? That one?"

"Oh...yeah." Pinkie answered slowly, realization dawning. "About that...I was gonna try and help Spike make an apology sundae for Rarity!"

Twilight frowned. "But...what about our cake?"

"We'll get our cake." Pinkie assured her, placing hooves on Twilight's withers. "We will. Promise. But right now, Spike needs to be sure Rarity can forgive him, so I'm going to help, okay?"

"Okay..." Twilight droned, but once again, she didn't sound okay with this. "I guess I'll put these up..." Twilight's horn lit up with magic, and the pots and pans began levitating themselves into their respective places in the cupboards.

"And a few little sapphires will make it complete!" Spike cheered to himself, imagining a light sprinkling of sapphires to add to the sundae to make the ultimate collection of assorted tastes. Why wouldn't Rarity find it delicious? He did! He was distracted from his wondering by the sight of the rustling pots and pans. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing." Twilight lied to him. "Nothing at all."

"All...right." Spike muttered, taking a china bowl out to begin mixing together the sundae.

It took several attempts, but after a long while, several retries, and more than a few recommendations by Pinkie, Spike felt like he had a ready apology sundae. Pinkie had thankfully convinced him in time not to include the sapphires.

Twilight was sulking all the while, thinking Spike really was taking Pinkie from her. First, they played outside for a little, and then Pinkie puts off their cake to work on his sundae...

Seeing the sundae, Twilight felt a surge of conflicting emotions. Her face contorted weirdly, like she was trying to make two expressions at once. She was happy and proud that Spike would put so much work into it, but on the other hoof, Pinkie and Spike would soon be carrying that sundae to the Boutique, leaving Twilight to clean up the mess left behind. And that was a lot of mess. Ice cream splattered the walls from failed or discarded attempts. Cherries adorned the cabinets, and syrup-covered spoons were strewn about the kitchen sink.

"Are you...sure you can handle this by yourself?" Pinkie asked Twilight with care, looking at the mess they made.

"It's fine. It's fine." Twilight told her. "Spike needs to get that thing to Rarity's before it melts. Besdies, he deserves a break every now and then."

Spike frowned. He would be happy to get a break, but he hadn't thought about keeping the ice cream cold before they arrive. He thought they could make to the Boutique in time.

"Hey..." Pinkie draped a foreleg around Twilight's neck. "How about you come with us, and then we all clean it up together when we get back?"

Twilight blinked, then smiled. "I would like that. Here..." Twilight walked to the sundae and picked it up with her magic. "I'll use my magic to keep it from melting!"

So, with Twilight holding the ice cream bowl high in her magic, every so often recasting her spells to ensure it remained frozen, the delovoping family went to the Carousel Boutique, where they heard Rarity through the door, still talking softly to her sister.

"It'll be all right, Sweetie Belle..."

"Let me go!" Sweetie protested. "My eye feels fine!"

"Oh, sure, it feels fine, but a shiner of that size takes some time to go away! No sister of mine will be seen in public looking this!"

Twilight and Pinkie looked to each other, suddenly not sure if this was such a good idea, really.

Twilight cleared her throat and knocked on the door.

"Coooming!" Rarity answered in a sing song voice. The door opened, and Rarity was surprised and elated to see them, but the light of her smile dimmed considerably when she noticed Spike was was with them. "Girls! Hello! What brings you over...and what is he doing here?" Rarity snarled the last few words at Spike.

"Could you, uh, get Sweetie Belle/" Pinkie pleaded.

"Why?" Rarity demanded harshly and accusingly, justifiably suspicious of their motives. "So that brute you call your assistant can hit Sweetie Belle's other eye and give her a matching pair!?"

"He has a gift for you!" Twilight tried to defend him. "Both of you!"

Rarity remained skeptical, her already sharp eyes narrowing into thin slits, but she relented. "Sweetie Belle, could you come to the door, please?"

"Yeah, why? What's...up." Sweetie Belle appeared, a sun hat on her face that was lopsided to cover her swollen eye. She gave Spike the same accusing leer Rarity was, but with a much rounder, less sharp face, and only one eye to do it with, the effect just wasn't there.

"Here." Twilight said, levitating the bowl of sundae before the two sisters. "Spike made this for both of you."

Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked to each other. With Rarity's blessing, Sweetie Belle nervously took ate a spoonful of the sundae.

She was instantly won over. "Mmmh! This is delicious, Spike!"

Sweetie Belle pulled him into a hug. "I forgive you! You must have put in a lot of work to make this taste this good!"

"Yeah..." Spike chuckled nervously. "Well, Pinkie-" Spike saw Pinkie making a cutting gesture, bringing her hoof across her throat. She didn't want Sweetie Belle to know Pinkie Pie had helped out with it, or Sweetie's forgiveness might not be as easily earned.

Sweetie Belle took the bowl, balancing it on her nose and trotting back inside the boutique.

"Hmph." Rarity huffed and turned her nose away as she watched her sister gallop back inside. She rounded on Spike and pushed a hoof into his nose. "Let's make one thing perfectly clear, Spike; you may have won Sweetie Belle over with a sweet treat, but you will I am not so easily bought!"

"You're not?" Pinkie muttered to Twilight as a joke. They both giggled quietly.

"But...I suppose I can at least...let you inside." Rarity said slowly, as if unsure she really meant that she could do that. "That is, if you behave a like a mature little boy, and _stay_ in the _corner_. Come along, darlings." She said, as a way of inviting them inside.

They all trotted in, and from the empty door frame, they could see Sweetie Belle really digging it into the sundae, forgetting it was supposed to be for her and her sister. No harm was done, though, as Rarity had no intention of going anywhere 'that brute's' concoction.

Twilight looked at Spike ruefully, not wanting to put him through this, but Rarity was adamant; he could either go in the corner, or he could go outside. Spike slouched and gave in, walking towards the corner and sticking his nose in, his forehead scales brushing up uncomfortably against the wall. It was chafing.

"Oh, and do be sure you won't molt your little lizard scales on my walls, won't you, you brute?" Rarity asked him. Spike's heart had a spasm of pain. His crush, who called everypony 'Darling' was going out of her way to make sure that not only she not call him that, but she called him 'Brute' in place of it.

Twilight saw how deep Rarity's words cut into Spike's scales. He probably didn't even realize himself just how far something like that could cut into him. He probably had no idea the only way he would recover would be if Rarity forgave him, thinking that eventually, he'd outgrow it and just write it off.

"Rarity, can we talk in the other room?" Twilight requested.

"I don't see why not...provided, of course-"

"Somepony keeps tabs on Spike, I know." Twilight finished Rarity's sentence for her, getting quite tired of how badly she was treating him. It's not like he gave Sweetie that black eye on purpose. "That's kind of what I want to talk about."

"Hrm." Rarity's eyelids turned suspicious again. "All right..."

The three ponies went into the other room, leaving Spike all alone with his thoughts.

Spike sighed. He wished he could take it all back. He wished he never had that fantasy roleplay scenario. If he never had it, he wouldn't have gotten lost in it. If he hadn't gotten lost in, he wouldn't have hit Sweetie Belle. If he hadn't hit Sweetie Belle, he wouldn't be in the mess he was in right now.

He scrolled his eyes over the blue plaster he was forced to look at, as endless as a gleaming ocean, looking at over and over it again until it made his head spin.

"Are you sure you can't forgive Spike, Rarity?" Twilight's voice carried over from the other, and it was very soft and delicate.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure." Rarity replied venomously. "Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, how would you feel if I hit your little sister and gave her a black eye?"

"I'd probably be mad at you, yeah." Twilight admitted, sounding exasperated. "And maybe I wouldn't trust with them for a little while...but making him sit in the corner? Calling him a brute? This is ridiculous!" If he didn't know better, Spike thought he just heard Twilight slam her hoof into a table.

"Let me remind you, Twilight, that while I consider you a dear friend, this is my home, and you will follow my rules while you are in here!"

Pinkie sidestepped in with a distraction before the argument could escalate any further. "Hey, Rarity! What's this?"

"Oh." Spike was relieved to hear Rarity's tone become one of boredom and not rage. "That? Just a little fantasy I have...it's a jewelry case. A very nice, very expensive jewelry case that I would like to own, but even for everything I make, I could never afford it and still make ends meet."

"So..." Spike heard hooves rustling through magazine paper. He didn't realize it, but having to bear through all of Twilight's reading sessions gave him a limited understanding of the different sounds of different papers, enough to tell a magazine apart from a book. Not like Twilight, who could probably tell how many pages the book was and what it was about just from the sound the page made when turning.

"If Spike got this for you, would you forgive him? You did say you weren't so easily bought with ice cream, and this _is_ much more expensive."

"_HA!_" Rarity laughed, a sound the purity of which would've made Spike's heart skip a beat, were it not directed at him and what could be his only chance of earning her forgiveness. "Hahahaha! Fine, fine. I'll humor you with a deal, since this will never happen. If Spike gets or gives me this jewelry case, I will forgive him for all recent transgressions dating as far back as the last two months all the way to yesterday. Of course, this will never happen, as Spike couldn't earn enough in a million years to purchase this."

"Oh, don't underestimate him..." Twilight said coyly, and for some reason, Spike couldn't help but imagine her wearing a fake mustache like Dick Dastardly, twirling it in anticipation of the success of her next evil scheme.

"Well, if you say so, but I will maintain some healthy disbelief." Rarity said coldly.

Spike couldn't believe it. He just might have an instant out to Rarity's forgiveness of him. He was so overwhelmed at the idea that he stumbled backwards and tripped.

Rarity huffed. "Would one of you please go make sure that wasn't Spike giving Sweetie Belle a matching pair?"

"I'll do it." Pinkie volunteered, and Spike could hear her scuffling as she got up off the table.

"Hey!" Pinkie greeted him when she came into the room. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just...surprised." Spike told, scrambling back to his feet to resume his post of looking at the wall. The dull, boring, blue wall.

"Here." Pinkie came up behind him and draped a leg around his shoulders. "I'll help you!"

Spike wondered how Pinkie could 'help' him look at a way, but he supposed she could perhaps have a way to pass the time. Misery loves company, and all that.

"Uh, Rarity? Could I ask you something?" Spike could hear Twilight say to Rarity softly.

"What was it, darling?" Rarity answered, equally quiet, causing Spike to strain his hearing to make sure he caught what they were saying. Whatever it was, it was bound to be something they wanted secret, juding from how quietly they talking.

"It's about my...boyfriend." Twilight answered. "I feel like we're taking things too slow."

"Oh, darling!" Rarity chided. "Why didn't you speak up sooner? This is a crime against passion that I cannot ignore! You want my advice, and I assume, since you're asking, you do, I recommend you drive him crazy."

"Drive him crazy?"

"Drive him up a wall! Make him feel head overs hooves for you! Tease until his lust for you begins to consume his every waking thought! I'll make you a new ensemble to help you with. Trust me, I know what a stallion likes."

"I don't doubt that..." Twilight muttered, leaving out that the pony she was dating was no stallion.

They all left shortly afterward. Sweetie Belle gave Spike one last thanks for the sundae, while Rarity mutter something about hoping Sweetie Belle would grow up and be 'less gullible than this'. Spike was so enraptured with the thought of getting Rarity that jewelry case he couldn't notice anything else in the world, so Twilight took the opportunity to steal a kiss from Pinkie Pie.

"So, how are we gonna get me enough money to get Rarity that jewelry case she wants?" Spike asked, which made Twilight and Pinkie stop dead in their tracks.

"W-what?" Twilight stammered.

"I heard you talking." Spike admitted. "Rarity said she'd forgive me if I got her that jewelry case...must be a really nice case, too...so...how do we get it?"

Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other.

"Spike, when I said that, I- never mind. How about you just do some jobs around the neighborhood? You know, water some plants...mow some lawns." Twilight waved her hoof through the air, trying to indicate she didn't think this out all the way through.

"I'll get right on that!" Spike proudly declared. He dashed through the neighborhood, rushing all the way to the nearest pony with an open stall – it happened to be Daisy, one of the local flower merchants.

"Oh!" Daisy exclaimed in surprise at Spike appearing from out of the blue at her stall. "Hello, Spike. What can I do for you?"

Spike saluted. "I'm looking to do some jobs around the neighborhood so I can hopefully earn enough to buy somepony close to me something really nice!"

"Oh, isn't that sweet!" Daisy cooed, putting her hooves together. "Well, you happen to catch me at a fairly good time. I need to be somewhere on business tomorrow, and I could use somepony to take care of my plants while I'm gone. Think you can do that?"

"With pleasure!" Spike assured her, saluting again.

From this far away, neither of them noticed Twilight's grimace under the forming shadows of the evening.

* * *

Turns out, Twilight's grimace was completely justified.

The next day in the afternoon, Spike gave the plants too much water and not enough soil, causing them to wither. He left the stall and sat on the open grass, waiting for Daisy to return, all the while muttering to himself what a great job he did. Spike would've gotten onto Twilight's case for not thinking he could do something by himself if he knew she had been watching him, but Twilight didn't feel like putting it up with that nonsense.

Hiding a bush only a hoof's reach from the stall, Twilight aimed her magic at a billboard and blasted it, knocking it clean off its post. It fell to the ground and smashed into a passing pony. Spike hopped up to observe the resulting scene of chaos and carnage as other ponies scrambled about, trying to make the innocent victim was okay.

"Ooooh..." Twilight groaned. She had been hoping for a distraction, but she didn't realize her little prank would have such a convincing performance. Shaking that thought aside – it was just an accident, and it provided her with the distractions she needed- she strolled up into the stall and used her magic to bring the plants back to life. It was a simply matter, really, as the plants were just flowers. They were fantastical complex organisms like some trees in the Everfree Forest. Then, before Spike could turn and noticed, she slipped out the stall and went around.

She trotted up to Spike. "Hey, Spike! How are you?"

"Fine." Spike answered, still watching the chaos Twilight's destruction had wreaked. "Just waiting for Daisy to give me my paycheck."

"Uh-huh, uh-huh..." Twilight nodded, alternating her gaze to look between Spike and the havoc. "Well, uh, I'm going to go see about maybe helping out with all that chaos over there, but before I do that, I need you to send this private letter."

"O...kay." Spike hesitated, taking the letter Twilight produced. He took in a deep breath, then stopped. "You're not gonna go on another kick like you did when Pinkie stayed over with us and have me send private letters constantly, are you?"

"No, no. Hopefully." Twilight answered before galloping over to the scene. "Mister! Mister, are you okay!?"

Spike shrugged and blew his magical fire breath on the letter, sending it away through a twisting nether realm where Princess Celestia would receive it, read it, and respond to it. How she would respond to it, Spike didn't know.

"Ah, there you are!" Spike was pleased to see Daisy returning from her trip. "Did you take good care of my plants?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Spike said with a salute, even though he hadn't, really.

Daisy took a glance over her stall and the potted flowers on it. "Mmm...excellent! Here, have some bits for your troubles."

Daisy reached into her purse and tossed Spike a handful of bits. Spike caught them in his claw and held them tightly. In any other circumstance, he wouldn't have minded the measly fee. It was just a simple...babysitting plant job. But Rarity liked nice things, and nice things tended to be _expensive_ things, so he was gonna need way, way more than this to pay for that case.

With that thought weighing heavily on his mind, Spike proceeded into town in order to find some more neighborhood jobs to do...

"Hey..." Daisy muttered after he had left. "These look even better than when I left them!"

So, Spike went around town, snatching up every opening he could find, doing every job that caught his eye. It often involved him running around from one end of town to the next.

One job he took was helping Applejack and her family feed their stable of pigs. That didn't go too well. The pigs refused all the food he offered them – even after Apple Bloom pointed out he was using the chicken feed and exchanged it for the correct one. But the instant the feed went into Big Macintosh's hoof, the pigs started lapping it up.

He went to Old Man Hayseed's apartment and asked if there was anything he could. Hayseed responded he needed to mow the lawn, but with his bad back... Spike gave his trademark salute and went to work. Unfortunately, Hayseed's diesel lawn mower didn't seem to like Spike anymore than the Apply Family's pigs did, and it ended chasing him around the yard, leaving a very uneven cut around the grass. It was sheared off until it hit dirt level in some areas, then left completely untouched in others. Hayseed eventually ran out and pulled the lawn mower's switch, and he recommend Spike not take up an occupation that required working with machines.

So then, after that, increasingly desperate and running out of places to go, he went to Zecora's house to see if the zebra witch doctor needed any fresh herbs. As it happened, she just ran out of some Honeymalacus or whatever. Spike didn't pay attention to the name, just the description and what he needed to do to get it.

As magical plants have a tendency towards, getting to it was difficult, and picking it out would be even more so. Zecora explained Spike would have to do a complicated dance with otherwise normal leaves stuffed into his mouth while flapping hand fans in his arms. He managed to do all that, but on his way there, he got mauled by a Manticore, which seemed to lost interest in eating him after it had given too many bruises to count on one claw.

And then he went back to Zecora's to find she had found another sample of the Honeymaka-whatever.

And THEN, after ALL THAT, Flutterhshy found him, demanded to know who gave him 'all those nasty cuts and bruises', dragged him to her house for 'a nice, disinfecting bath' and he was promptly humiliated the whole time by that deranged rabbit Angel of hers. When he finally gave in to temptation and gave that bunny the kick in the posterior region he so righteously deserved, Fluttershy told him to get out. He tried to protest about how the bunny had been mean to him the whole time, but Fluttershy shoved him out the door...while he was still in a towel. He saw Angel waving at him through the window, and unable to contain himself, he punched it with his fists, shattering it, giving the darn rodent a good scare, but also cutting himself.

Tired of it all, ready to drop down dead, Spike retired to the library. It was late. He was humiliated, he was frustrated, and to make it all worse, he hadn't earned zilch in the way of getting Rarity that lovely jewelry case.

Stopping to readjust the towel on him, Spike opened the door and was ready to collapse onto the welcome mat, expecting Twilight would carry his unconscious body up the stairs to his basket, but he was surprised by a hug from behind.

He turned around to see it was Rarity.

"Rarity? Wha-?" Not that he minded, but still...the last time she saw him, she was glaring daggers at him.

"Thank you thank you thank you so much, darling!" Rarity gibbered at him, overjoyed at something he didn't know about to the point she couldn't form coherent sentences. "I never expected you would be able to get me that case, but you did better than! With all those orders from these Canterlot ponies, not only can I afford the case, but my business should boom! I take back everything I said about you being a brute, and I will never underestimate you again!"

Rarity...gave him a kiss. On the cheek.

"See you around, darling!"

"Yea-buh...yeah-buh...fi fike it, vut..." Spike stammered, his mind turned into a swirling cesspool of confused emotions at Rarity's kiss. He was entirely too flattered to think about much, but the back of his mind was still going...

_Wait, how did she get the case? You haven't earned anything yet except a bath and scratches!_

Spike turned around and staggered his way inside, where Twilight was amused to see him stumbling so drunkenly.

"What's got you so uplifted, champ?" Twilight jokingly asked him.

"Rarity...gave me a kiss!" Spike answered. "Right on the cheek! She says I got her enough clients to get her the case, but I never got her – hey, what are you two doing?"

He hadn't noticed Twilight and Pinkie lying on the couch next to each other when he came in.

"Uhhh..." They both stuttered."

Twilight cleared her throat. "I...placed those orders for Rarity for you. I..." Twilight looked into Pinkie's eyes. "I know what it's like to not be sure sompony you love will forgive you for something." Pinkie's lips quivered. "So I had you send that private letter to the Princess so she could pull some strings and get Rarity that case, telling her it was from you."

"You..." Spike blinked. He dropped the towel and put his arms over his chest. "You'd do something like that for me?"

"Obviously, since I did!" Twilight replied cheerily. Then she noticed the state of disarray Spike's body had been left in. "Why don't you limp onto bed? You look terrible."

"I don't feel much better!" Spike answered, before falling backwards onto the floor and collapsing, falling unconscious.

Pinkie and Twilight shook their heads.

"Should we carry him to bed?"

"At some point."

They rubbed their hooves across the others' chins.

"I'm proud of you." Pinkie said, burying her muzzle into Twilight's shoulder. "It's nice that you got past your... 'Pink Fever' and helped somepony else with their romantic problem."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, thinking for a moment of how to process this.

_You have to drive him crazy!_ Rarity's voice echoed in her mind.

"Maybe I could help you with some other problems..." Twilight suggested with a tone of voice to indicate all mannerisms of naughty, inappropriate behavior.

The cue went flying over Pinkie's head, and the pink pony just raised an eyebrow in return. "Huh?"

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**Wow.**

**I'm going to be starting college in August, so...yeah, yeah, you've heard this, haven't you? "I'm going to be in school, so I won't have as much time to work on my Fanfiction!" so I really rushed this chapter. Everything after 'her hooves and sighing' was done in a single day from 9 AM to 2 : 35 PM.**

**I could have gone into more detail about the jobs Spike did (narrating them AS they happen rather than recounting them after the fact) but I wanted to prove I could complete a whole chapter in a day.**

**To Shadedbeauty22: **

**Shadow Hooves is a person who likes my stories, and he has, on occasion, used his role-playing as an excuse for a lack of grammar, and I believe you if you're AWARE you lack grammar, shouldn't make excuse for yourself!**

**To Shadow Hooves: **

**Yeah, they are more worthy fans. They haven't made me _mad enough to rant at them _in the notes.**


	6. Friends and Family

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**By Darkryt Orbinautz**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 6 **

**Friends and Family **

* * *

The next morning, everypony woke up and did their usual routines. For some, it was brushing teeth, then doing chores and eating breakfast. For some, it was attending to their passions – watering the plants, practicing some morning stunts, or designing a f_aaa_bulous new dress. For a very select few with a talent for multi-tasking and no shortage of ambition, it was doing all of those things at once.

But Applejack was a simple pony. She didn't have any ambition to rise up to the top of the fashion market, somehow stitching together an evening gown at the same-time she was skiing down a mountain with an avalanche chasing behind her, nipping at her tail with its snowy fury.

Applejack's choice was the first one, brushing her teeth and tying up her mane in her signature ponytail.

"Ah..." She sighed into the mirror's reflection once her hair was done up just the way she liked it. "Now that's more like it." She headed out into the orchards, grabbing her hat along the way, and begin the long process of bucking them with her hind legs until they released their delicious apple-scent quarry into the empty baskets waiting below.

Like every morning, she planned to continue this routine until either one of her friends came by and gave her a distraction, or she got all the apples for the day into all the baskets.

Whichever came first.

It was around afternoon, and she only had a few more trees to go, when she caught sight of Spike waddling his way into her orchard. She looked between him and her trees.

"Only a few more to go..." Applejack observed. "Eh, 'pose Ah can walk and talk." It would be a derivation of the norm, but sometimes variety was good in life. Applejack waved Spike over. "Howdy, Spike! Come on over, pardner!"

Spike smiled and ran up to her, trying to catch her at such a pace that he could walk alongside her as she continued bucking apples.

"What can Ah do ya fer?" Applejack offered to the small dragon.

"Do you know what's going between Twilight and Pinkie?" Spike asked unabashedly.

Applejack was so confused by his random question that she stopped mid-buck, her hind legs raised into the air in a manner most ridiculous. Rarity would've loved to capture in a picture, and then use it for modeling, Applejack would be sure. "Wut do you mean? Ah haven't noticed anything goin' between Twilight and Pinkie at all."

"They've been spending an awful lot of time together..." Spike mumbled.

"Ah'm sorry, Spike, but Ah can't help ya." Applejack apologized, resuming her buck.

"Okay..." Spike turned around and wander back to the entrance. "Thanks for trying, I guess..."

Applejack pouted. She didn't like seeing Spike so down. "Hey, pardner!"

Spike stopped and turned around, scaly brow raised.

"How about y'all go inside and wait fer me a li'l while, and then after that, Ah'll make y'all a nice fresh glass of cider? How does that sound?" She winked at him, trying to persuade him to come in so she could cheer him up some.

"I'll pass." Spike muttered, before turning back around.

"Mmm..." Applejack pursed her lips. A good idea seemed to be forming in her mind to charge up to him and drag him inside, then force him to enjoy some good ol'-fashioned sweet cider, but she thought better of it.

"Mmmm...Ah know! This calls for a little round-up of the gang!"

* * *

Apple Bloom wobbled, her legs moving so fast as to be a blur of pale olive yellow, trying to balance the tray of apple and orange juice on her nose.

Gathered around the table of the Apply Family house were Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, while Applejack went around making sure they had everything they would need for company.

"Everpony settled?" Applejack asked as she prepared to take a seat. Everypony nodded. "Good, good...Ah guess y'all are wonderin' why Ah called you all over here."

"Mh-hm." Chorused from the table with another round of nodding.

"Well, it's about Spike. He came by earlier, and he was right depressed about sumthun'. Wouldn't even take an offer of cider." Rainbow Dash took particular umbrage to this. "And he said sumthun 'bout Twi and Pinkie hanging out together at lot."

Twilight's eyes went blank for a moment, before blinking.

Everypony else turned to look at Pinkie and Twilight.

"Wha-why are you all looking at us!?" Twilight exclaimed. "Can't you understand sometimes friends like spending time together? Hmph!" Twilight turned her tail and left the table.

From outside the house, they heard a frustrated, piercing scream.

"I'll go...talk to her." Pinkie volunteered, getting up off her seat and going after her secret beau.

"Why should you go to talk to her?" Rainbow Dash asked accusingly, flying up into the air. "The problem here is that you two have been spending a lot time together, isn't it!?"

"Well...maybe." Pinkie reluctantly answered, almost soft-spoken. "But I did just spend a whole Celebratory Week getting to know her, didn't I? I'll bet I know her better than any of you do!"

Rainbow Dash slammed herself on the table, lowering her wings and standing up as a tall eagle with her eye on finding an opening in Pinkie to exploit, a wound already open that she could pour salt in. Applejack became distraught that Rainbow Dash standing on her family's table with whatever her hooves might have tracked in from the dirt. Applejack was normally fine with dirt, but not in her family's plates.

"R.D, I'd appreciate if y'all would git off the table mah family, y'know, eats at?"

"Oh yeah?" Dash snarled at Pinkie, Applejack's words' worth as much as lint on a carpet rug very badly in need of a thorough dusting off. "Is that a fact?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie answered, stepping up to the challenge and slamming her hoof on the table. "Rainbow Dash, do you know what separates a fact from an opinion?"

"What?" Dash questioned, honestly not sure if she cared.

"Facts...can be proven." Pinkie said with a smarty-pants tone reminiscent of a certain librarian, that reeked with the idea she knew something Rainbow Dash did not. "Do you know what's always on her mind all day?"

"Uh...pleasing the Princess?" Dash answered.

_It's me._

"Do you know that she's currently sick with a special type of magic flu that the only cure for is a party and some laughs? In other words, my specialty?"

"No..." Dash answered, turning her head away. "What is it?"

_Pink Fever._

"Well, I know what it is, and you don't." Pinkie concluded, pushing Rainbow Dash backwards to the other edge of table, towards the seat Rainbow Dash had abandoned. "So there. That's why I should be the one to talk to her. Hmph!"

Pinkie turned her head up as she scooted her chair out and jumped off. Her nose remained firmly stuck in the air as she walked outside, a reminder to Rainbow Dash of how she lost this fight, and would again if she was so foolish as to try it in the future. Rainbow Dash scooted off the table, back into her seat and crossed her front legs. She huffed.

Pinkie made her way outside, deliberately making sure the door she opened creaked as loudly as was feasible, so that Twilight could hear it and be warned somepony was approaching her. Enough of a warning bell that Twilight could get her act together. Her facade of being in total control of herself.

The irony of it all was not lost on Pinkie, the way Twilight's necessity in making sure her feelings for Pinkie were kept under control...had been going on so long that Twilight has gone completely out of control of her control.

Pinkie stepped out the door, and she was able to hear Twilight's sniffling lightly, crying over the idea that everypony had pierced their facade, provoking suspicions that everypony would soon be voicing as they poked and prodded both of them for the truth. Pinkie ran up to Twilight the instant she saw a lavender back.

"Twilight! What's gotten into you!?"

"It's Spike!" Twilight explained. "He knows something's going on, Pinkie Pie! I don't know what to do ...I might have to go away from you...we've been spending too much time together, everypony is starting to suspect something, but oh...being away from you is..._Pinkie!_"

"I'm here, I'm here..." Pinkie assured her as Twilight fell into her chest, murmuring a vast number of silly and sillier pet names for her poof-maned girlfriend. "It'll be okay."

"No it won't."

"It'll be fine. We just...have to play along. Here. Come here." Pinkie cupped Twilight's chin and brought their lips together. Twilight cried a little, imagining that this would the last time they kissed for weeks, if not months. "Feel better?"

"Mm-hm...a little." Twilight wiped a tear from her eye and looked up at Pinkie Pie. "But what do we do now?"

Pinkie stroked Twilight's mane, talking with a swan's level of etiquette, comforting Twilight like she was mother, not her lover. "We go back inside. We come with an excuse for why you freaked out like that, and then we help with the conversation. Understand?"

Twilight nodded. "Umm...I was actually upset, but, um...that freakout was entirely fake...you know..." Twilight scuffed her hoof. "So we could get out here and talk to each other."

"That's..." Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "Impressively manipulative of you, Twilight..."

"Yeah, well...I had to learn a lot of tricks when I had to keep my crush on you hidden from you." Twilight sheepishly chuckled, trying to laugh it off. She turned and calmly trotted back inside, while Pinkie stayed behind and tried to fathom the depths of how far Twilight was willing to go.

Staging a freak-out like that, so that Pinkie and her could talk alone...that required an intimate understanding of how her friends saw her, how her friends understood her...an understanding of how Pinkie would react to what Twilight's actions.

Pinkie had s startling realization. If Twilight had that much understanding of Pinkie's reaction to things, and how her friends react to things...the calculating, brainy intelligent unicorn could easily manipulate the entire group into doing something without them realizing it.

And if she could do _that_... what couldn't she do?

Pinkie took in a deep breath and put her hooves together., silently muttering a prayer Celestia to that Twilight's morality would keep from using this power to control the group and trick them into doing something amoral, or against the law...

Of course, Pinkie didn't think about that, if Twilight were to try to manipulate them into carrying out a heist, the stress of trying to not get caught would wear her out and cause her to breakdown, in turn causing the whole operation to fail.

Pinkie turned and went back inside, retaking her seat next to Twilight at Applejack's table. Applejack was serving Twilight some apple tea, which sounded kinda gross to Pinkie, but Applejack was confident it would 'put a lasso on those jittery nerves of yers'. Pinkie still declined, though from the sips she was taking, Twilight actually found it quite tasty.

"So, before I lost it, what were we discussing?" Twilight asked, tilting her head as the steam from her cup wiggled through the air.

"Well, Spike's upset." Applejack answered. "Ah don't know wut y'all did, or if he's using as a target to blow out some steam on sumthun else that's bothering 'im, but Ah do this; we need tah find some way to cheer up and get 'im better."

"Hmmm..." Rang through the room, as everypony put their hooves to their chins and began brainstorming, the cogwheels and gears in their brains turning and grinding, intending to come with something really cheerful. Individual, they all their own unique set of skills, but together, there was nothing they could not accomplish.

The longer it took for anypony to come up with an idea, the more Applejack frowned. Spike looked really downcast, so she wanted to do anything she could to help.

The ceiling fan quietly squeaked, its whirring becoming the most audible thing in the room from the silence. Normally it would be entirely silent, drowned by the talkative voices of enthusiastic mares below. Now, those mares were anything but enthusiastic, quiet in their thinking of Spike and what he would like for a surprise gift. Rainbow Dash had gotten so bored she got off the table, took an apple from of the Family's baskets, and began bouncing on her all four hooves while lying on her back.

"I've got it!" Rarity exclaimed, raising her voice and her hoof to the air. "I'll make him a fabulous suit! I do need some way of repaying him for getting me that fabulous case."

Everypony blinked, except Twilight who shifted her eyes.

"Um...no." Applejack said. "Pardon me, Rarity, but Ah just don't think Spike's interested in that sort of thing."

Rarity looked flabbergasted that anypony could 'not' be interested in obtaining her fabulous, groundbreaking clothes designs. Apple Bloom tugged on her older sister's leg and asked if she could be excused. The enlargement of Applejack's eyes made clear her distress that her little sister had been there the whole time with nothing to do while they brainstormed.

"I know what to do!" Pinkie exclaimed proudly. "We'll throw a party!"

Everypony was torn between either showing their enthusiasm for that idea, or being embarrassed it took them this long to come up with it.

"Annnd..." Pinkie added, putting her hooves on the table as she prepared to deliver an ultimatum of ultimate mischief making. "We'll do something really special for it."

Everypony oohed, wondering how Pinkie meant to set about and achieve that particular goal.

"We'll throw it at Fluttershy's."

Everypony shared a collective blanching as unanimously as an colony of ants with a single mind.

"What?"

"Um, Pinkie Pie, darling..." Rarity said softly, wondering how to be tactful about this. "Spike is a young boy...he likes..." Rarity circled her hooves through the air. "He likes games, hanging out with friends, big events... he'd like a party that's eventful and lively..."

"Yeah?" Pinkie nodded, eager for Rarity's input.

"All of which are things that are very ...loud." Rarity said.

"Uh-huh..." Pinkie nodded.

Rarity pursed her lips, contemptuous and trying to hold it in, but she grew tired of how Pinkie was being dense enough she could sink like a stone in a kiddie pool's shallow water.

"FLUTTERSHY DOESN'T LIKE LOUD NOISES!"

"EEEP!" Fluttershy squealed and hid under the table, her pink tail waving to and fro as she ducked under the furniture, proving Rarity's point.

"Oh...oh my." Rarity realized what she had done and cleared her throat. She ducked under the table to coax Fluttershy out. "Fluttershy, darling, you can come out...I'm so terribly sorry, I didn't mean to yell at Pinkie like that."

Fluttershy nervously crawled out of her hiding space, putting her hooves on the table and looking between Pinkie and Rarity. "No...no more yelling?"

"No more yelling." Rarity promised.

"Um...loud noises would upset my animals..." Fluttershy mumbled. "But I want to help Spike feel better to...so, um, I guess I could, um, move my animals away into my chicken house for a little while. Just long enough to have Spike's party and be done with it."

"Then it's settled!" Twilight declared. "We'll move Fluttershy's animals and throw a Spike a great big cheering-up party, with cake and sweets and games and weapons of mass confectionery!" Twilight's tail wiggled from side to side, excited at the prospect.

Applejack raised her eyebrow at Twilight's behavior, but she dismissed it as simply the result of her wanting to see her assistant cheer up.

"All right, y'all! Let's hop to it! Everypony start getting everythang ready!"

"I'll do décor!" Rarity exclaimed, rubbing her hooves anixously.

"I'll start moving my animals..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"I'll organize the preparation." Twilight said calmly.

"I'll...well, I don't know what," Pinkie admitted, "but it'll be LOUD and cake-y!"

Applejack turned to the strangely quiet pegasus in the room, the one that was known for being very loud and brash, and not at all quiet. "An'...wut are y'all gonna do, Rainbow Dash?"

"Hmm?" Rainbow Dash said, admiring her hoof the way a bipedal species would admire their nails. "Oh, yeah, yeah...don't worry, I've got a plan."

"That only makes me worry more..." Applejack muttered.

* * *

Applejack went out of the house and went back to her orchard, bucking the apple trees for extra surplus of the red fruits. She needed some extra hauls in to give her enough to make some extra apple cider, apple tea, apple juice, and all sorts of other variety of apple-tastic beverages.

"Hiiiii-yeah!" Applejack brazenly charged at one of her trees, swerving around so her hind legs were at the location of her front legs at the last minute and bucking one of the trees with all her might, causing its apples to cascade down in a glorious rain of stemmed crimson orbs.

"Hi, Applejack!" Pinkie said, appearing from thin air behind and startling Applejack so badly she jumped up straight into the now-empty branch of her tree.

"Oh!" Applejack said, looking down as she hugged the branch like a koala bear. "Pinkie Pie! Y'all startled me, eh-heh."

"Oooh...sorry." Pinkie apologized. "Just wanted to see how everything was coming along for the party."

"Fine. Just fine. Thank y'all for checkin' up on me." Applejack said, salvaging her pride. The branch she was began to creak, and she flailed to grab out and reach onto adjacent one before the one she was on gave way, but she couldn't reach it in time and fell down to earth with the branch as it snapped under her weight, leaving her as messy pile of oranges limb tangled up in a twisted knot of branch.

"Ah'm okay!"

Pinkie had already walked away to another part of the orchard, so Applejack was reassuring only thin air of her condition.

Pinkie bounced merrily along the orchards until she suddenly bumped into a familiar feeling chest...

"Oh!"

"Twilight!"

"Pinkie!"

The two of them immediately began stammering excuses for themselves.

"I, uh, I didn't see you there..."

"I was just checking on Applejack's progress. You know, for the party!"

"Oh. Really? I was about to do that."

"Well, I just did, so I guess you don't have to!"

"All right...here. Let me- get out of your way."

"If you'll just step to the side a little, I'll-"

The two of them began an awkward dance, stepping to the left, right, diagonally, horizontal, vertical, and for Pinkie, some odd combination of the first two and last one. As a result of their clumsy attempts to by the other, Twilight tripped on Pinkie's hoof and fell onto her back, making her fall right into Pinkie's mane...Pinkie's deliciously-sweet scented mane.

"Mmm...!" Twilight moaned as she took in whiff after whiff of the desirable-smelling pink hair. She couldn't help herself. She grabbed Pinkie's sides and pushed herself up, then stepped backwards and readied herself to jump. Once she had enough distance, she bounded into the air, tackling Pinkie to the ground and causing them to tumble around the orchards until they were safely behind a tree, where nopony could see them...unless they came right next to them. Pinkie wasn't sure what just happened, until her eyes focused on a lavender nose that was pressing up against hers.

"You are so sweet." Twilight complimented, rubbing Pinkie's cheek. "In more ways than one! I mean...throwing this party for Spike. It's so...you, but I think it's just the thing we need for him and us."

"Uh-huh!" Pinkie nodded enthusiastically as Twilight's hoof trailed down her chest. They began giggling mischievously. Twilight was so caught in the volume of it she didn't notice Pinkie's giggling was much less mischievous and much more anxious than hers.

"Uh...wut are you two doin'?"

Twilight's and Pinkie's widening in unison. They turned to see Applejack standing there, barrels of apples over her haunches, looking at them from over by the tree, with a confused stare.

"Uh...uh..." Twilight stammered. As she had done more than a few times before, Pinkie came to her rescue.

"We were playing and didn't watch where we going, so we tripped over one of your tree trunks." Pinkie explained, hoping that would make Applejack go away. Instead, it brought her closer.

"Tarnation, gurls! Didn't yer mama teach ya not to play near the really big ones?" Applejack rushed over to help the two of them. "Did ya hurt anything? Broken nose? Sprained ankle?"

"We're fine, just a little dizzy." Twilight answered, attempting to shoo away the hoof Applejack was extending to help them up.

"Be more careful next time!" Applejack scolded as she walked away to the next portion of the farm, easily seeing her help was neither needed nor wanted.

Twilight slowly scooted upwards, and for once, was able to drag herself off Pinkie Pie. She helped Pinkie Pie up to her hooves, only for Pinkie to turn around and scold.

"That was way too close." Twilight reflected.

"Yes, it was!" Pinkie snapped. "You need to be more careful next time!"

"I know..." Twilight whined, crossing one of her legs in front of the other as her tail curled around her Cutie Mark shyly. "I'm sorry..."

Seeing so apprehensive, Pinkie felt bad for getting on to her. But like any motherly figure in charge of teaching her young charge the difference between right and wrong, 'okay' and 'not okay', it needed to be done. Which was not to say an apology could not be offered afterward.

"Come on." Pinkie put a hoof to Twilight's neck. "Let's go the library."

Twilight smiled, overjoyed at the thought of being able to get some quality cuddling time with Pinkie. Her Pinkie.

* * *

Spike waddled towards the Carousel Boutique, meaning if maybe his crush knew anything about Twilight and Pinkie's recent activities and behavior towards him...and each other. From the sounds he heard as he approached, she must have been busy. He heard thwacks of wood smacking against other words, likely a discarded ruler being carelessly tossed into a drawer, having outlived its usefulness to her. He heard rustlings and tearing of clothes, rustling of linen, but none of that deterred him from wanting to see her.

"Rarity?" Spike asked, knocking on the door. "Rarity, are you in there? I sort of need your help with something!"

The door opened, but it was Sweetie Belle, not Rarity. Spike felt a syringe full of awkwardness and inadequacy unload into his arm upon seeing her again. Her black eye had gone down considerably, on the very brink of being completely gone, but that didn't make him feel any better about remembering he had hurt her in the first place.

"Hey." Spike shifted his legs, uncomfortable and nervous. "You all right?"

"Yeah?" Sweetie Belle nodded, missing the cues that would've let her know what was upsetting him.

"That's good...that's good!" Spike nodded his head. "So, um...I know I already gave you that apology sundae, but...do you forgive me?"

"Yes." Sweetie Belle answered.

Spike's held his claw in the air, disbelief rising out of his belly like he was about give off a huge belch. "Wha-really?"

"Yeah..." Sweetie Belle rubbed shyly at the base of her ear. "I've had some time to think about it, and...it's not like you did on purpose, right? Accidents happen...at least, that's what Applejack says, according to Apple Bloom. Besides, we Cutie Mark Crusaders haven't been without our share of accidents!" Sweetie Belle swung her hoof through the air. "So, uh...can I help you?"

"Yes! I want to ask Rarity a question..." Spike rubbed his claws together. "It's...kind of important."

"Ooh, I don't think that's such a good idea right now...she's not still mad at you, but she is, um...busy." The whir of a sewing machine buzzed from behind Sweetie Belle, before it somehow turned into a klaxon alarm followed by an exclamation of "Drat!"

"See?"

"Please?" Spike begged, getting on his knees. "It really means a lot me I ask her about this!"

Sweetie Belle stilled seemed uncertain, but seeing Spike on his knees seemed to change her mind. "All right." She nodded and went back inside, calling her sister's name as Spike followed behind her. "Hey, Rarity?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Spike's here! He wants to ask you a question!"

"What!?"

Rarity came rushing out to meet them, her beautiful sharp eyes holding a twinge to them Spike had come to understand met she was in the zone. Not 'in the zone' in the way Rarity normally got in, but actually in the zone, like so far gone in her passion for fashion there was no use trying to beg or reason with her. "You can't be here right now!" Rarity shrieked, pointing at Spike.

"But...I thought that you forgave me!" Spike protested.

Rarity scoffed. "Oh, psshaw, darling, it has nothing to do with that. Sweetie Belle, get him out of here, now!"

"Uh, okay. How?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I don't know!" Rarity snapped, walking towards the other room. "Distract him! Kiss him or something, just get him out!"

Sweetie Belle turned to Spike and pursed her lips, indecisive between obeying her sister's will and not putting her lips to Spike's scaly own. Spike decided it was best to just be nice and surrender before she could make her decision. He threw his arms into the air. "Okay, okay! I'm going, I'm going..."

Spike stepped out the door, Sweetie Belle closing it behind while passing along a quiet apology for Rarity kicking him out.

Spike signed, not sure where to go next or who to turn to. He had been hoping Rarity would know about Pinkie and Twilight, since this seems like her kind of thing (and Twilight and Pinkie had been going to her for advice for some reason, over something...)

He saw Rainbow Dash sitting on a cloud, sitting in a position otherwise abnormal for ponies unless they were holding something nearly as big as they were.

Spike heard a string go twang somewhere nearby, but he wasn't sure where.

He didn't think Rainbow Dash would know anything about Pinkie's and Twilight's behavior. The same way it was Rarity's thing, it was soo not Rainbow Dash's thing, but she was just a few steps away, and he already tried Applejack, he couldn't ask Pinkie or Twilight themselves, certainly, and Fluttershy was on the other end of town...

So he stepped forward and called her name. "Rainbow Dash? Rainbow Dash, can you hear me up there?"

"Hmm?" Rainbow Dash's ears perked up, and she rolled over to look down at the lowly earth beneath her to see what eternally earthbound mortal was desiring her attention today. Spike's attention was caught by the presence of a guitar in her hooves.

The guitar had a long neck that ended in a blue plastic – or metal, Spike couldn't tell from the ground – 'V', and the body of was round and covered in the same blue material. Its neck was long, but thin.

"What's that?" Spike asked, pointing at the guitar.

"Oh, this?" Rainbow Dash said like the guitar was nothing special. "Just a guitar I happened to find lying around. Been trying to make it work off and on since. Can't you believe somepony threw this bad boy out!?"

Rainbow Dash began strumming a tune on the guitar, using the edges of her hooves to draw the strings. She got a good start, especially considering that she had no fingers or claws, but something occurred to Spike;

What if it was thrown away for a reason?

His thoughts prove correct, as Rainbow Dash's nice start didn't last, as she guitar suddenly went out of tune, producing harsh metallic sounds that Spike found painful to listen to. Rainbow Dash didn't even seem to notice, as she kept playing without a care in the world.

Spike then noticed a sight most unwelcome approaching him. A little white ball of fluff mounted on another white ball of fluff. A rabbit. A rodentia. A bunny.

Angel Bunny.

Evidently, he had come for revenge for Spike scaring him yesterday, and was ready to to deliver some serious payback to the dragon. Spike balled his claws into fists and got ready to engage in a ball of violence, clawing and poking at each other.

Angel Bunny got to Spike's feet and shook his fists at Spike. Spike got his dukes ready, and was about to strike when something unexpected happen.

"Hey!"

Angel and Spike turned to see a young colt approaching them. He had a dark beige coat and scraggy black hair that covered his eyes, making Rainbow Dash think of a bully she knew named Hoops. This colt was almost a dead ringer, except he wasn't a pegasus and was wearing a black shirt with a vague white picture on it, along with a red sports cap.

"What do you think you're doing, _bunny?_" The colt hissed at Angel, an indignation in his voice as he snarled the name of Angel's species name. "Trying to take on somepony who didn't do nothing wrong, I'll bet?"

Angel leered, chittering his little bunny teeth angrily, probably swearing in his secret bunny language. He thought better of trying to pick a fight with both of them and hopped away from them.

"Thanks." Spike thanked his unusual rescuer. "You hate Angel, too, huh?"

"Angel?" The colt questioned. "He has a name? ...Sorry, no, no, see I just- I just hate rabbits, is all. Bad experience with them when I was younger. And I just so happened to hear somepony playing some pretty rock-out tunes, so I came over to find out what the deal was."

"Uh, yeah." Rainbow Dash affirmed arrogantly, lowering herself to the ground. "That was me." She held the guitar up proudly.

"Oh, dude!" The colt exclaimed. "Where did you find that? My mom threw it out by accident a few years ago!"

"Oh...so that's why it was in the trash." Rainbow Dash's tone turned dejected, as she realized this colt would probably want his guitar. Spike, meanwhile, wasn't so sure it was an accident, given how out of tune it was. Rainbow Dash held it up. "I guess that means you'll want it back, huh?"

"Nah." The colt waved his hoof. "You can keep it. She got me a pretty sweet replacement. So you were the one playing it, huh?"

"Uh-huh!" Rainbow Dash nodded and set about playing again. Spike, taking precautions, put his claws over his ear holes, much to the colt's confusion, and began sneaking away. The colt liked what Rainbow Dash was pumping out, at least until the guitar suddenly turned out-of-tune again, forcing the colt to put his hoof on the strings to stop when Rainbow Dash wouldn't.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?" The colt questioned. "Can't you hear that this thing is waaay out of tune?"

"It is?" Rainbow Dash questioned.

"Yeah. Here...if you'll give me it, I'll see about fixing it up a little bit..." Rainbow Dash willingly surrendered the guitar to its former owner, who sighed at its touch. "Ooh...this brings back memories...anyways..." He began fiddling with the tuners on the guitar. While he worked, Rainbow Dash got an idea.

"Hey..." Rainbow Dash called for his attention. "Me and some friends of mine are throwing a party of that little dragon that just walked off."

"Oh?" The colt lifted his head up, and Rainbow Dash knew she had him hooked. "Is it his birthday?"

"No, no..." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "He's just feeling down is all. But I was thinking...you must have some friends of your own, right?"

"Yeah?" The colt answered, curious where Rainbow Dash was going with this.

"Well...think you could round them up and bring them to the party?" Rainbow Dash said teasingly. "You know, liven it up a little?"

"Yeah. We could do that..." The colt said as he handed the guitar back to Rainbow Dash.

* * *

Twilight, lying with Pinkie on her couch, was startled by Pinkie's body suddenly engaging in wild motions that shook her about, like Twilight was trying to ride Pinkie like a bronco.

"Pinkie!?" Twilight exclaimed, her love shaking like jello in her hooves. "What's wrong!?"

"Pinkie Sense!" Pinkie answered.

"What's it saying?"

"That our friend of ours is about to inadvertently completely ruin something for another friend of ours!"

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and worried, as with what was going, she could only reach a few, only slightly varying conclusions. "I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the party..."

"I hope so too." Pinkie said, wrapping her leg around Twilight's neck.

* * *

Spike waddled over to Fluttershy's house, despite his suspicions Angel was somewhere around here, waiting for Spike to pass by and then spring from the dirt and grass to take a terrible revenge on him.

As he got closer to the shed, Spike noticed that it seemed quiet. Almost too quiet, even for Fluttershy. It wasn't until he was at the door and about to knock did he realized what was wrong.

There were no animals around. Normally, there were at least some animals around, even if they were so much as just butterflies butterflying into the wind from one plant to another. They were there, usually, which is something they most certainly were not now.

"Hmm..." He rested his claw against the door, accidentally scratching it with his long draconian nails. Spike grimaced and hoped that the damage he did to the door was negligible, or at least easily fixed. Both fortunately and unfortunately, Fluttershy heard the scratch and mistook it for somepony, so she opened the door...slamming Spike into the wall.

"Hello?" Fluttershy asked the air. "Is-is somepony there?"

"Mmm mmmhf mmhpf!" Spike protested, flailing his limbs about to get her attention before she retreated back inside and dismissed it all as a freak accident.

"Oh!" Fluttershy pulled the door back, giving Spike a much desired look at fresh air and sunlight again. "Oh my goodness! Are you all right, Spike?"

"Yeah..." Spike put his claws on his knees. "Just need...to breath...for a second."

"Why don't you come inside?" Fluttershsy kindly offered.

Spike glared, remembering yesterday and how well him coming inside had turned out for him. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely." Fluttershy nodded. "I promise Angel isn't going to be upsetting you."

Spike raised his eyebrow. He knew Fluttershy was a generous and gracious host, but short of locking that rodent in a box and throwing him over a cliff (and preferably into a pit full of manticores, dragons, giant spiders and whatever else Fluttershy could find) Spike didn't think there way any way for Fluttershy to guarantee Angle not upsetting him.

But seeing her stare at him so expectantly, Spike sighed and gave in. "Fine." He followed her inside the door to her home.

Spike had been here before, of course, yesterday and a few times before that. So he understood what the place looked like enough that he couldn't get over how off something was...something he couldn't quite put his claw on... what was it...

"Where is Angel, anyway?"

"Oh, he's out right now." Fluttershy answered, going into the kitchen and pulling out a teapot. She set the teapot on the stove and turned on the burner underneath it. "We're throwing you a party at my house to cheer you up, so all my animal friends are elsewhere. Angel wasn't too happy about it..."

Spike's first thought about this was that may have the actual reason Angel was looking to pick a fight with him. He didn't want revenge for yesterday, he wanted to vent his frustration he'd been kicked out today.

Although with what went on in that rabbit's mind..who knows? Spike briefly wondered how Fluttershy put up with so much and why she doted on him even more than her other pets.

Spike's second thought was that was a very generous thing for Fluttershy to do. He knew she didn't like loud noises, and he also knew how much each and every one of her animal friends meant to her, so for her to send them away at all must have been incredibly taxing on her...or, there was something he wasn't aware that factored in her ultimate decision.

His third thought was that everypony was throwing him a party.

"A party? For me?" Spike asked. Fluttershy nodded, before turning back to the tea kettle. "What for?"

"Well..." Fluttershy pursed her lips. "We've noticed you've sad about something lately, so we decided to try to cheer you up. Pinkie said throwing it at my house would make it 'special'."

"That's awfully sweet of her..." Spike muttered, blushing that Pinkie would take such extreme lengths just to make him feel better.

There was a knock on the door.

"Is that-?" Spike asked eagerly, rubbing his claws in anticipation.

"I hope so!" Fluttershy answered. She rushed towards the door and opened it. Spike closed his eyes, trying to brace for the disappointment of it being somepony besides their friends.

"Hey, Fluttershy!"

Spike opened his eyes. That was Twilight's voice.

"Ready for the party?"

"Oh, your timing is perfect! I just told Spike all about it!"

"Yeah! Maybe a surprise would've nicer, but surprise parties are loud, and it is your house..." Twilight muttered.

Soon, everypony came pouring in– Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, the whole gang, except for Rainbow Dash. Spike wondered why she didn't show up.

Pinkie must have read his mind, as the first thing she said was "Has anypony seen Rainbow Dash?"

Everypony answered in the negative.

"Huh..." Pinkie muttered. "That's weird...normally she loves parties."

"She probably thought something rude." Twilight said skeptically. "Like, 'Party at Fluttershy's? Ugh! Dullsville'!" Twilight shook her and snorted.

Fluttershy grew concerned. "Are you okay, Twilight? You're not usually this...cynical about Rainbow Dash."

Twilight sighed. "No, Fluttershy, no, I'm not. I'm very stressed out." Twilight wrapped her legs around the shoulders of her number one assistant. "But this party is about making Spike feel better, not me."

"Aww...Twilight!" Spike lifted Twilight's leg off himself. "Who says you don't deserve some cheering up of your own?"

Twilight's lips faltered for a second. In that second, Spike might have been able to catch a glimpse of the strenuous control she was exercising each and every day, but he wasn't as socially trained as Rarity or Twilight was, so he missed it.

Seeing as they were at Flutterhshy's, and not somewhere spacious like the library or Sugercube Corner, everypony forewent the usual party options of raucous games and all just sat down for tea. Applejack gave Spike a cup of odd-smelling brown drink, which he discovered to be apple scented upon sniffing it.

"What's this?" Spike questioned.

"Apple tea!" Applejack answered proudly. "Soothes the nerves and calms the heart, Granny Smith used tah tell me."

Spike eyed it warily. Apple tea? That's like putting a banana inside a sapphire cupcake; it just doesn't work that way.

"Try it!" Twilight insisted, holding in her magic a cup of the same stuff. "It's actually quite good!" She sipped at her cup to prove her point.

There was another knock to the door.

"Ah...Rainbow Dash, unfashionably late as always." Rarity wittily remarked.

Twilight levitated her cup down and pulled open the door, to be met with Rainbow Dash...as a well as whole bunch of other ponies! They all some resemblance to the guitarist Rainbow Dash met earlier, with simple T-shirts and manecuts that put either some or all of their hair in front of their eyes.

"Wha-!?" Twilight exclaimed. "Rainbow Dash! Who are these ponies?"

"Some cool guys I met today." Rainbow Dash answered. "Figured I'd bring them along. Y'know, liven things up a little."

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight chided. "This is supposed to be a quiet party!"

"Aw, come on!" Dash insisted, as the rowdy bunch behind began exchanging murmurs and whispers as to what was the hold-up. "It's only six or eight guys, and who knows?" Rainbow Dash wiggled her eyebrows. "Maybe we could even find a few coltfriends out of them, huh?"

Twilight was not amused, and not just because swung the other way. "Very funny. Take these crowd go to a concert where they belong!"

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash insisted again, whining this time. "I brought them all the way out here, and it'll be fine!"

"It will?" Twilight asked, extremely doubtful Rainbow Dash could back up that assurance.

"Yeah!"

Twilight pursed her lips. Any condition she set, was more or less guaranteed to not be met, so it was less like giving Rainbow Dash a condition she had to meet to let these colts inside and more like trying to warn Rainbow Dash what her punishment would be that Twilight would carry out.

"Fine. Fine. But if things get out of hoof, you will be held responsible, and I will...I'm still working on that."

Twilight stepped aside, reluctantly, allowing Rainbow Dash and her new 'posse' to rush in, much to the startling of Fluttershy and Rarity. Pinkie's eyes widened when she saw what Rainbow Dash had done. Spike was just confused, caught in the middle of it all...as usual.

"What's going on?" Spike asked, confused and not recognizing any of these ponies.

"Rainbow Dash." Pinkie snarled, clenching her hoof around her ceramic cup so tightly it shattered. "Oop! Uh...I'll pay you for a replacement, Fluttershy."

Little did they know, the mess of ceramic shards and spilt apple tea that pooled at Pinkie's feet was the first test of Fluttershy's resolve. "It's fine...just...clean up what you spilled, would you, please? Um, if that's okay?"

"Of course!" Pinkie answered, departing to look for a broom. She shot a filthy glare at Rainbow Dash. Spike noticed Pinkie and Twilight were both shooting Rainbow Dash glares. Matching glares, with the exact expression in the exact same position, and he could read from their eyes they were thinking the exact same thing. They were imagining doing to Rainbow Dash something very pleasant to be thinking of doing to somepony, but not so pleasant for that somepony to go through.

"So!" One of the hipsters Rainbow Dash had dragged gave Spike a scare by poking his head into the conversation he was having with Fluttershy. "I hear this party is for you?"

"Uh...yeah." Spike stammered, a little rattled from the surprise guest and their abrupt way of addressing.

"Well...come on, little dude!" The hipster picked Spike and lifted the dragon onto the back of his neck, and whisked him away to the center of the living room floor, where they were engaging in free form break dancing. (The horror!) Spike was dropped into the middle of it. He was hesitant, but after awhile, he got into the swing of things, while the crown began doing more typical party things, like Twister and cranking out the tunes on a boombox.

"Mmnnnee..." Fluttershy whimpered when the colt in questioned pressed the power button on said boombox. He kept it low, as the house wasn't all that big, and therefore, did not have a whole of ground for the vibrations of sound to cover.

"Honestly..." Rarity said, drawing up to Rainbow Dash alongside Pinkie Pie and Twilight. "What were you thinking, Rainbow Dash?"

"I was thinking these guys could liven up the party some!" Rainbow Dash replied, unaffected by how upset everypony was with her. "I mean, who wants to just sit down and talk while drinking apple tea? Boooring!"

Twilight narrowed her eyes, subtly trying to regain control before she said something she'd regret.

"Besides!" Rainbow Dash elbowed Rarity. "Who knows? We might be able to score a few coltfriends in this crowd!"

"Well...I suppose." Rarity admitted, latching onto the idea that something worth her valuable time might come from Rainbow Dash's roguish behavior. She took a quick glance over a the crowd. "No, no...not my type, none of them."

"What about you, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Think you see one of these handsome boys in your future?"

"Actually, Twilight and Pinkie already have boyfriends." Rarity informed Rainbow Dash.

"Whoa! No kidding? Really? Who are they?" Rainbow Dash's wings popped up, she was so excited at the idea of Egghead and Pinkie the Party Pony at having boyfriends.

Twilight continued to not be amused, but she exchanged a knowing glance with Pinkie and smiled.

"Actually, Rainbow Dash, my boyfriend is already in this crowd." Twilight smugly told her.

"Really?"

"Oooh!" Rarity squealed. "Which one is it? Is that in the corner with the overbite? Librarians love the overbite." She added as an aside to Rainbow Dash.

"No." Twilight answered, drawing her neck back. "First name is Nunya, last name is Ofyerbisness."

"What kind of name is Nunya Ofyerbisness-!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, but saying the name all together let her realize the pun. "Oh. Haha. Very funny."

Nopony noticed Fluttershy's whimpers steadily grow louder, er, quieter and more high-pitched. She tried to handle the loud noise, the music, and all these ponies she didn't know. She didn't want to ruin Spike's party. She held her hoof and took a breath to calm herself before putting her cup of tea down and trotting towards the owner of the boombox.

"Um, excuse me, sir?" Fluttershy said gently, waving her for his attention. "Could you turn the music down?"

The colt seemed not to hear her, as he turned to the nearest other hipster on his right. "What? What did she say?"

"I think she said for you to turn the music loud!"

Fluttershy went bug-eyed. "NO! Turn the music _down!_"

But her panicked shout fell on deaf ears – which were quite possibly actually deaf, at least one side, but she wasn't sure, and it was rude to ask- and the colt hit the volume button on his device until it was so loud that it literally threw Fluttershy backwards into the wall.

Despite the music now threatening to tear apart Fluttershy's house by a sound-induced earthquake, Spike noticed his yellow friend go flying into the wall and rushed over to check on her.

"Hey..." Spike said softly to her, getting on his knees to bring their faces closer to each other. "You okay?"

Fluttershy looked at him, her big innocent green eyes growing in size considerably. "Ooooh!" She turned around until she was right-side up on her hooves again and slammed her hoof on the ground. "Spike, I am so so sorry. I really didn't want to ruin your party, but _I can't take it anymore!_"

Fluttershy began to march towards the colt and the boombox, and Spike found that he was genuinely worried for the colt's safety. Hope his parents have a good life insurance policy...

Fluttershy stomped towards the boombox, the floor beneath trembling 'neath every powerful step. An angry force of nature had been awoken by amoral shames and ambitions druids to wreak havoc on mere mortals, and its name was Fluttershy.

Fluttershy took in a deep breath like she was going to scream her head off until the colt's ears jumped off his head and ran away...and calmly placed her hoof on the boombox's power button, turning it off so she could speak. Since she had turned the music off, she had all of the colts' attention.

"Um, I'm so sorry to ask this of you, everypony, but I don't like loud noises...or loud music, and this is my house, so I'm going to have to ask you all to _GET OUT! _… Please. If-if that's not too much trouble."

Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy, then, realizing she may have made a mistake in bringing all those colts here, started to creep towards the door.

"Oh no you don't." Twilight noticed and used her magic to grab Rainbow's tail and pull her back inside. "You're going to stay here and see this to the end, you little-"

Pinkie quickly lashed her tail around Twilight's head before she called Rainbow Dash something unsavory, making it look like Twilight had put on a big pink scarf. Put it on wrong at that.

Thankfully, everything turned out actually rather well. The teens all took their hats (at least the ones wearing hats) and admitted they may have took things a little too far. They all surrounded Fluttershy and asked what they could do to make it up to her. Clean around her house, go out and pick her up some stuff from the store, maybe take care of her pet for a week while she went on vacation. (Oh, if only they knew what that entailed!) Needlessly to say, Fluttershy was overwhelmed at all the request, but also a little surprised they were being so humble. She set them about doing the first suggestion; cleaning her house.

As they scrambled to get to work, and tried in vain to figure out where the ever-tidy Fluttershy kept all her myriad cleaning supplies, Fluttershy went to talk some more with Spike, feeling repentant about her actions. Even though they were entirely justified, and Rainbow Dash should have been the one to feel guilt.

"I'm sorry for ruining your party, Spike."

"Aw...it's okay." Spike assured her with a wave. "At least I got to try to breakdance. That was kinda cool...you know, while it lasted." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Fluttershy asked, wanting to make things up."

"Ah, you don't have to do any of that! Although..." Spike looked at Twilight and Pinkie over in the corner, and leaned in to whisper. He pointed at the two mares. "If you could tell me what's going on with those two..."

"I, um..." Fluttershy stammered, and Spike's heart skipped a beat as he imagined that finally, somepony was going to tell what was going on!

"I think Twilight noticed you pointing at them."

Oh, for the love of Celestia- oh dear. That meant Twilight had noticed him pointing at them. Twilight stomping towards him, looking not at all pleased.

"I hear you've been asking around about Pinkie and I are doing..." Twilight said to Spike suspiciously.

Spike gulped, swallowing hard in fright. "Y-yeah."

"Well, let's clear this up right now; what Pinkie and I are doing are adult things that do not concern you. As much you may not want to admit it, Spike, you're still a baby dragon." Twilight turned and left on that sour reminder.

Spike looked down at the floor, Twilight's words ringing in his head.

Pinkie saw his downcast expression as Twilight walked back up to herself. Pinkie reached around Twilight's neck and pulled her somewhere they could talk without anypony hearing. "Twilight...are you sure that was the right thing to say?"

"No." Twilight said with a sigh. "But he's not ready for the truth yet."

"How do you know?"

"I don't..." Twilight admitted. "While we're still living in Canterlot, it...it never came up."

"Hm. Well..." Pinkie looked away, not looking Twilight in the eye as she prepared to deliver the crippling blow she was about to. "I have to be honest with you, Twilight...I don't know if Spike is ready or not..."

Pinkie started walking towards the direction of the door, and looked over her wither at her beau.

"I just know that _you're_ not."

Twilight was about to protest, but she couldn't think of one. She resigned herself to just standing with her face pointed at the ground, just like Spike currently was in another part of Fluttershy's house, as Pinkie walked out the door.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**That ending represents a running theme I have, that Pinkie - space-minded, air headed, doesn't think like a normal pony Pinkie- is somehow more down to earth in a relationship than logical, rational raised by high society Twilight.**

**There's also a running idea I have in this...continuity family of mine that in the process of being in a relationship, Twilight and Pinkie start to pick up and do the others' traits.**


	7. Do For Love

**Disclaimer: My Little Pony is the properties of Hasbro. This is a non-profit work made by an independent contractor outside of the official company's notice intended for non-profit entertainment and speculative purposes only.**

**By Darkryt Orbinautz**

**His Vector Grey**

**Chapter 7**

**Do For Love**

* * *

As night fell upon Ponyville's dusty fields, Twilight and Pinkie left Fluttershy's house, leaving her to the mercies of the teenagers...or perhaps the teenagers to the mercies of Fluttershy.

They weren't really sure which.

But either way, Twilight had insisted on getting out quickly so they could keep an eye on Spike. Pinkie was glad to see that, even though Twilight wasn't willing to divulge the secrets of their relationship just yet, Twilight wasn't going to let Spike's investigative inquiries stop her from worrying over his safety in the darkness of the night. Spike felt differently, not knowing of Twilight's uncertainty and anxiety about sharing her secret, and to him, it seemed less like caring for his safety and more about smothering him.

They got to the library without incident, though not entirely without distraction. Pinkie was still Pinkie, and that meant she had to check out every little moving thing that caught her interest, even that twitch she saw in the forest that turned to just be a grasshopper on a tree stump.

Twilight stepped around the rest of her friends and unlocked the door. Spike grumbled about how pushy she was being.

"There's no need to shove us around, Twi, geez..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"Mh-hmm." Twilight huffed at Spike, making it clear she didn't believe him, but she didn't seem too concerned about pursuing the matter, as she simply opened the door and trotted in. Spike followed after her, thinking about how nice it would be to wrap in his nice comfy basket and drift off to dreamland, but a painful sharp pressure on his tail brought him back to reality.

"Ow!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Spike! I didn't mean to get your tail!"

Spike turned around and raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. "Uh, shouldn't you be at Sugarcube Corner?"

Why was Pinkie following him inside the house? She didn't sleep here. Did she think maybe they were a slumber party waiting, or did it not occur to her that the 'Celebratory Week' had long since ended?

Pinkie shifted her eyes back and forth. "Uh, yes. No! Maybe. Um..."

Spike crossed his arms. "You and Twilight have been spending so much time together lately! Why-!"

"Spike."

Spike's heart dropped into his stomach. He turned around and saw Twilight resting on the stairs, giving him a glare. Her shadow arched out from the stairs across the floor. It was a like a strict Victorian father ready to admonish his child for even daring to think that he could engage his sense of childlike wonder.

"Remember what I said at Fluttershy's house?" Twilight questioned, walking towards him and taking her place – her rightful place- next to Pinkie Pie. "That what we're doing is an adult thing that does not concern you?"

"But-!" Spike protested.

"Why don't you go to bed, Spike?" Twilight asked softly, but Spike saw it for the veiled order that it was.

Spike exploded, fed up with Twilight's secret-keeping.

"You and her have been spending so much time together, it's like I don't even matter to you anymore!"

Pinkie's nose started to whistle as she tried to contain the rage boiling inside her, threatening to burst forth and just frikkin' tell Spike already. She wanted to. Pinkie wanted to sooo badly, and she had faith that Spike could handle it, but she also knew if she just went out of nowhere and told Spike without clearing it with Twilight, Twilight would feel so betrayed!

"All right, fine." Twilight muttered in response. "Tomorrow, I will send Pinkie back to Sugercube Corner and spend the whole day with you."

Spike raised an eyebrow, while Pinkie tried to raise an alarm. "You sure about that, Twi?"

"Yes, Spike. I'm sure. I still care for you, even if I am spending time learning about...er, friendship with Pinkie Pie."

"Are you really, really sure?" Pinkie added in, pressing herself against Twilight and rubbing their Cutie Marks together. Pinkie started to wrap her tail around Twilight's neck. "I mean, think about what you'll be missing!" Pinkie would've loved for Twilight to send her away for a day and spend time with Spike, but she also knew what that meant to Twilight.

Twilight, the pony afflicted with Pink Fever, addicted to the feel of Pink against her flesh, without her widdle Pinkie to treat her.

Twilight closed her eyes and took in a big whiff of Pinkie's tail. She sighed in content. "Aaah...okay, okay...the day after tomorrow, I will send Pinkie Pie away and spend the day with you, Spike. I promise. Now go to bed."

Spike rubbed his chin, understandably doubtful that Twilight would live up to her end of the bargain. He noticed how pained Twilight seemed to be, either with or without Pinkie. The whines she made under her breath both when Pinkie came hopping in, and the whinnies when Pinkie turned to leave. He nodded his head and played along. "Yeah...all right...bed..."

Spike turned around and walked up the stairs, his dragon tail crawling along the ground like a saddened slug.

Seeing he was gone, Twilight sighed. Pinkie put a hoof on Twilight's neck, knowing that the feel of her hoof always made Twilight feel just a little bit better inside.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know how long I can keep this up." Twilight admitted. "He's going to know the truth eventually."

Pinkie blinked, not sure if she heard that right. "Could you repeat that?"

Twilight was confused by Pinkie's request, but obeyed it. "He's going to know the truth eventually?"

Pinkie tried not to let the smile that was forming inside her out. To hear Twilight admit that Spike was going to eventually know the truth was extremely encouraging, as before, Twilight was violently against the idea of letting Spike know anything, but now that she was confronted with the reality of it...she accepted it. She accepted that Spike was going to find out, instead of, say, having a complete breakdown and loss of contact with reality over the possibility that maybe, just maybe some secrets aren't worth keeping.

"Yeah, that." Pinkie answered. She frowned as she remembered she still needed to prepare Twilight for coping without her soon. Extending the deadline from tomorrow to the day after tomorrow gave some room for maneuvers, but only up from 12 hours for the rest of tonight to 36 for this night and tomorrow.

"Come on." Pinkie nudged her head against Twilight's neck, in the direction of the kitchen. "Let's go binge on sweets."

"Mmm...are you sure that's a good idea, Pinkie? We still have things to do tomorrow..."

"Nope!" Pinkie answered. "In fact, I'm sure it is the absolute worst idea right now... which is typically when it is also the best idea!"

"Mmm..."

Twilight and Pinkie went to the kitchen and pulled out two chairs, taking out a secret, hidden stash of sugar cubes from the refrigerator and stacking them in pyramids on the table. With Spike in bed, they could freely indulge without worrying about Spike catching them doing something naughty with their inhibitions lowered.

For the first cube, they felt a brief, fleeting spike of joy, the sweet taste of their treats allowing them to temporarily forget their troubled relationships.

For the third cube, they felt their joy swell up, knowing they wouldn't run out of cubes any time soon.

By the twelfth cube, they both felt daring, and picked cubes from the others' pile and feed it to them, causing giggles to spew.

By the twenty-fourth cube, they were having a jolly good time arguing over whether it was the west wall of the library or the south wall that broke out into soprano. After much arguing, they agreed to a comprise that were it was both singing, deciding to do a barbershop quartet, but North Wall and East Wall just didn't feel like it today.

"He-he!" Pinkie giggled, bouncing her chair. Twilight, equally buzzed, bounced her chair in response and also giggled.

"Come here, you!" Pinkie raised her front legs and beckoned Twilight over for a kiss. But she lost her balance, and flailed her legs as she fell off her chair tipped and deposited her on the floor.

"Piiiinkie!" Twilight wailed. It was just the chair tipping over, but in Twilight's buzz, it seemed as though Pinkie was plummeting to her doom after falling off the edge of a cliff. Twilight abandoned her chair, tipping it over as well in the process, and went to comfort her love. Twilight got on to her hind legs and scooped Pinkie up into her front legs. "Are you okay, my love?"

"Uhhh... I don't know." Pinkie dazedly murmured, her sugar buzz keeping her disoriented. "Say, maybe a little..." Pinkie lashed her front leg around Twilight's neck and lifted her head up, bringing their lips closer together. "Tender loving care should fix me right up, cutie pie."

Twilight's mouth hung open in lust at Pinkie's teasing. She panted heavily, ready for Pinkie to take her.

"Wait, wait..." Twilight turned her head towards the door, where her drunken vision was barely to make out three purple blurs standing adjacent to each other. Even in her stupor, Twilight was capable of recognizing her assistant when he was disobeying his bed time and defying her authority.

"Uh..."

"Spike!" Twilight screamed. "Get out of here! Go back to bed!"

"Yeah, I just forgot something." Spike held out a piece of papyrus Twilight hadn't noticed. "Your brother was going to come over sometime soon, but he was so busy he couldn't only come by late, so I thought I tell you, since it's almost when he said he'd be by."

"Uh-huh." Twilight nodded as Pinkie fell from her grasp and dropped to the floor, not taking in the implications of Spike's words. "Good. Thank you, Spike. Now go back to bed!"

Spike raised his arms in surrender, and dropped the scroll to the floor before leaving and heading back up the stairs.

"Now, where were we?" Twilight asked, pinning Pinkie Pie beneath her hooves.

"I don't remember..." Pinkie answered, rolling her sugar-buzzed eyes. "I think I was giving you an excuse to kiss me?"

"Oh. Since when do I need to excuse to get me a slice of my little Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked, pretending to be offended as she rubbed her hoof along Pinkie's marshmallow-soft chest. "I mean..." Twilight lowered her head in close.

"It is my Pie, after all, isn't it?"

In something Twilight found most strange, Pinkie didn't answer, just staring blankly into oblivion without any regard for the mare atop her.

Twilight became worried. "Isn't it? Isn't it, Pinkie? Pinkie, why won't you answer me!?"

"I..." Pinkie raised her hoof, her blue eyes shimmering with pure innocence and dark unknowing. "I'm scared."

"Of whaaat?" Twilight whined. "Come on, sweetie. We're partners now." Twilight cupped Pinkie's cheek and rubbed it reassuringly. "We need to be able to tell each other things."

"Well..." Pinkie clicked her tongue, but was spared from explaining by a sudden, unexpected knock on the door.

"Oh, that must be my brother." Twilight concluded. "Spike said he was coming by..." Twilight, though suffering much psychosomatic pain from it, willed herself up and away from Pinkie, wobbling on her hooves. As she stood, the impact of what was happening finally hit her hard, like a sock with brick inside had just stuffed into a cannon and fired at her face.

"Oh my gosh!" The realization of what was happening distressed Twilight to the point she was able to overcome her sugar buzz and snapped out of her reverie. "My brother is here! Shining Armor is here, visiting! Do you know what that means!?"

Pinkie blinked, not nearly as sobered up as Twilight was. "There's a male pony named Shining Armor whose your brother is waiting outside the door, knocking to be let in?"

"Yes! Do you know what that means?"

"No?" Pinkie confusedly answered, climbing to her hooves.

"It means my brother is here! Shining Armor doesn't know about us, Pinkie, and he can't! It's not even like Spike where he just can't know because- because... I don't know why, but Shining Armor REALLY can't know!"

"Huh?" Pinkie said, rubbing her forehead, her sugar buzz keeping her from understanding such a complex concept as keeping a romantic relationship a secret from a distant family member.

Twilight galloped to the door and frantically pulled it open, not thinking in her panic about keeping Shining Armor in the dark that maybe she could stop and calm down so she didn't panic and accidentally reveal to Shining Armor her relationship with Pinkie Pie.

On the other side of the door, with bags under his eyes but a smile on his lips, was a stallion with a gleaming coat, and dark blue rock star hair for his mane and tail. He was wearing a red saddle with golden outline, a design Twilight recognized as being from a faraway foreign land. His Cutie Mark was a blue shield with a purple star embroidered into it and sparkles coming from the top of it. There was no mistaking it; this was Twilight's brother, Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor.

"Twiley!" Shining Armor exclaimed, pulling Twilight into a tight hug. "It's been so long since I last saw you!"

"Good to see you too, B.B.B.F.F." Twilight answered to the stallion, patting him on the back. She sighed. "Yeah... it has been a while..."

"Sorry, sis." Shining apologized promptly. "It's just between the military, and going to meet all those foreign dignitaries, and my failing love life, I've haven't had much time to write, so when I had the chance to come visit you in person for a few hours in the middle of the night, I jumped at the chance!"

Twilight chuckled, though her mind was still on how Shining would react if he found she was dating- dating a pony of the same gender, no less. She knew that it was taboo to some, and even though she had accepted that she was 'different' herself, the taboo still held strong, which was she couldn't bring herself to tell Spike, let alone her brother, who was in the military, for crying out loud!

"Twilight!" Pinkie called seductively from the kitchen, which brought embarrassing sensations of warmth to Twilight in her cheeks, chest, and other areas that she really didn't want Shining Armor to notice and ask questions.

"Hey, are you all right?" Shining Armor asked, pulling away from his sister. He placed a hoof on her cheek. "You feel really warm."

The fact that Shining had noticed and asked a question – the very thing that Twilight did not wanting him doing- made Twilight blush furiously, making her cheek even warmer.

"Really warm." Shining Armor said, for the sake of clarity. "Who's calling your name?"

"Eeh, a friend of mine." Twilight answered, gently bringing his hoof off her cheek. "She's just staying the night."

"Twilight? Twilight Sparkly?" Pinkie called, lumbering her drunken hooves into the foyer. Twilight grimaced at Pinkie choosing the absolutely worst time to reveal a new nickname of her's, right where a family member Twilight held in such high esteem could hear it.

"Is this your friend?" Shining Armor questioned, pointing a hoof at Pinkie and sounding worried. Him sounding worried made Twilight worry.

"Yes?" Twilight answered.

"I didn't realize your friend was an, ahem..." Shining cleared his throat. "A connoisseur."

Twilight took in a deep breath and glared sharply. Just because Pinkie was sugar-buzzed the first time Shining met her, that didn't mean she had a problem. Pinkie did have plenty of problems, but sugar wasn't one of them. If anything, with her unnatural digestive system, sugar was the one thing Pinkie would never have to worry about.

"Yes." Twilight answered, coming to Pinkie's defense. "Yes, she is a connoisseur. Is there a problem wit that?"

"Well, no..." Shining answered awkwardly, surprised by Twilight's sudden defensiveness. "It's just that... that kind of thing leads down dark roads, Twiley. I wouldn't want her to take you down the drain with her, you know?"

Twilight took in a sharp breath and prepared to let loose on Shining, ready to rip him a new one for implying Pinkie Pie could be like that, but Pinkie wobbled over and got in between them.

"C'mere, here, Sparkly! Give us some sugar!" Pinkie reached her front legs out, but she mistakenly threw them over Shining Armor instead, and kissed him on the nose. After a second or two, Pinkie realized her mistake and pulled away.

"You're not Sparkly." Pinkie said, bopping his nose like not being Twilight was a crime that he willingly committed. Pinkie turned her gaze over, and was delighted when she saw Twilight. "Ah!" Pinkie threw her legs over Twilight like she been intending to all along, causing Twilight to blush even more.

"Twiley?" Shining asked. "You're not … dating this mare, are you?"

"No! No!" Twilight lied, fighting to push Pinkie off before Pinkie's lips met hers and sapped her ability of conscious thought, which would prevent her from lying to Shining. "She's just buzzed, all right? Pinkie...get off." Twilight growled warningly.

"But I thought you-" Pinkie became distraught, but Twilight shoved a hoof into her mouth.

"Pinkie Pie, I would like to talk with Shining Armor right now. Alone. We'll talk later, when you're not buzzed, okay?" Twilight patted Pinkie's cheek.

"Oh...all right, I guess." Pinkie Pie trotted with her head held low to the kitchen, presumably to eat more sugar cubes and get even more buzzed.

"Eh-heh." Twilight chuckled forcefully. "So! That was a little crazy! Why don't you come inside? It must be cold..."

Twilight moved to let her brother inside. Shining Armor was giving her a quizzical look, likely wondering what the deal with Pinkie Pie had been all about. Thankfully, he didn't press the matter, and he and Twilight then had a good time in company with each other until Shining had to leave again so he could be back to his base before anypony noticed he was gone.

Twilight and Shining Armor spent the night at the dinner table, whittling the late hours with tales of who messed up the mess hall at Shining's base or how Spike completely undid all of Twilight's hard work and organizing this week. Twilight was tickled by Shining's many and myriad stories of efforts to find love, only to be stood up, or made into a humiliating position by circumstances beyond his control.

"So, there was one time, with this cute Arabian mare..." Shining explained. "She was adorable. A dancer."

"Oh!" Twilight squealed, her tail hanging off the side of the chair. "Do tell!" She suddenly had an a brief fantasy of Pinkie in a Saddle Arabian dress, dancing for her, before dismissing it. Twilight's tastes ran more towards Roaman.

"Yeah..." Shining answered, before giving Twilight a suspicious eye. "You seem awfully interested..."

Twilight gritted her teeth. "Just want to know what my Big Brother's been up to!"

"Right. Well, anyways, they still have a lot of old customs leftover there, so if I wanted to date her, I needed to get her father's permission. But, take one of my recruits, a farmer, an and overly curious chicken, and getting covered in chicken feed pretty much destroyed any chance I had of that."

Twilight chuckled at the idea of her big brother smothered in farming materials, holding up a chicken in his hooves over his head. Having rescued it from harm, but because of how ridiculous he looked at the time, the dancer's father didn't let him date the dancer...

"What about you?" Shining asked her politely. "How are you doing on the romance scene?"

If Twilight had been drinking something, she would have done a spit-take, but as her mouth was empty of anything except her tongue and natural fluids, she instead did a "PFFB-TBBH!" and covered her mouth. She choked on air and cleared her throat. "W-why would you ask that, Shining Armor?"

"Well, you know..." Shining shrugged. "I just want to be sure you're socializing. Last I heard, you were being moved to Ponyville because you had trouble making friends. So, have you had trouble making any boyfriends, eh?"

"No, no... I... haven't been trying to go out on dates, really." Twilight laughed nervously. "You know, studies and all..."

"Twiley..." Shining Armor said seriously. "You can't live your life all alone."

"I'm not alone!" Twilight protested, standing up suddenly. "I have Spike!"

"Spike doesn't count."

"I also have plenty of other friends here in Ponyville! Like Pinkie Pie! Rarity...Rainbow Dash... !" Twilight exclaimed.

Shining fiddled with his hooves nervously. "Well, if they're all like Pinkie Pie..."

Twilight's jaw dropped.

"What did you just say?"

"If all your friends have problems with sugar like Pinkie Pie, Twilight, then maybe you were better off-" Shining found his words cut off by the sudden squeak of a door's hinges being move. He looked over his shoulder to see the library door was being kept open by Twilight's magic.

"I think it's time for you to leave." Twilight warned him in a voice that made it quite clear that it wasn't a suggestion for him to go.

Shining's mouth hung agape, unable to comprehend what he had said that offended Twilight to the point of kicking him out. He was only trying to warn her about the kinds of things sugar did to ponies. Was that so wrong? "What did I say?"

"Pinkie Pie does not have a problem." Twilight informed him, glaring daggers. "Nor do any of my friends have any problems that should keep me from being friends with them. If you cannot accept that maybe some ponies just like the occasional sugar binge, then you have no business in my home."

Shining whistled. "Ooh, wow... I..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry, Twiley, I... should have known better. You're smarter than to hang out with anypony you shouldn't be. I-I... I'm sorry."

"Hmm..." Twilight pursed her lips, mulling over whether she was going to forgive him right now. There was no question that she was, only, would it be right now, or later?

"I forgive you." Twilight said at last. He had put some serious work into being able to get out here in Ponyville at all to see her. It would be a terrible shame if that work was all for naught.

The next morning, Twilight was overlooking the stove, stirring a pot of boiling oatmeal.

Twilight levitated the wooden she was using into the air and blew some air on the spoon, cooling it before she sampled its taste. Deeming it done, Twilight put the spoon back in and turned the heat off. Right in the nick of time, as well, as she heard the unsteady, tromping lumber of somepony recovering from a sugar buzz.

Twilight turned around to see Pinkie trotting into the room, her poofy mane thrown over the front of her face and covering her eyes, making her like some 80's diva.

"Hello." Twilight greeted with detachment.

Pinkie made no effort to hide how bad she was feeling. There was no denying she had been in a serious stupor last night. She could only hope Twilight hadn't been as deeply affected, and that Twilight would have sometthing to help through the morning before she to interact with anypony.

"How bad was it?"

"Not too bad." Twilight answered, spooning up a bowl of oatmeal. "You did kiss my brother thinking he was me, though."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "You have a brother!?"

Twilight stood silent for a minute before answering. "No."

There was no need for Pinkie to know about Shining Armor at this point. It was stressful enough adjusting Spike to Twilight's new partner, but at least Twilight held some authority over him. She had no such control over Shining Armor, so if he decided to be stubborn or Celestia forbid, unaccepted of Pinkie, there was little she could. No, no... one male at a time, please.

"Do you have anything for me?" Pinkie asked, snail-crawling her way up the chair to the dining table.

"Yes." Twilight answered, serving the bowl to Pinkie. "That's what the oatmeal is for."

"Thanks." Pinkie muttered, skewering her eyes shut as she tried to eat the oatmeal. "So... had any thoughts about what you want to do about Spike last night?

"Mmh." Twilight grunted and shifted uncomfortably.

Up above in the stairs, over the wooden rails and through Twilight's bedroom, Spike was rolling around in his covers, trying to resist the natural urge to wake up. He didn't particularly feel like getting up today and dealing with more of Twilight's nonsense, flip-flopping her attitudes and tones depending on whether or not Pinkie Pie was in the room. Like a mood ring. Except a mood doesn't change somepony's mood, it changes color according to their mood, so perhaps a mood control ring? There were stranger things in the library's books.

Spike hadn't read any of them, but they were in there. Somewhere.

After flip-flopping his body back forth to the right and to the left for around the fifth time, Spike felt like something was wrong.

Twilight hadn't come for him and forcefully dragged him away from the blissful slumber of dream land. Twilight had yet to knock on the door, asking for Spike to get up, brush his teeth, and make her breakfast, or spend another morning shuffling through the wake of one of her late-night study binges.

Fearing for the very worst, Spike hopped out his basket like a spring and dashed towards the door, swinging it open with reckless abandon before making his way down the stairs, where he was both elated and confused to see Twilight tending to Pinkie, stroking her mane and feeding her oatmeal, as Pinkie's hooves became too shaky to hold any spoons by herself. It was jarring for a number of reasons. First was that the way things worked around the library, he made Twilight breakfast, not Twilight making everypony breakfast. Second was seeing the fact separated from the fiction, as Spike, like many other residents of Ponyville, figured Pinkie got all her energy by substituting a gallon-bag of sugar for breakfast, popping a hole in it and then simply pouring down her throat.

"Good morning, Spike." Twilight waved to him, sounding bored with life itself. "Pinkie had some 'adult' sugar last night, so she isn't feeling too well. I made some oatmeal to help her feel better. You can have some, if you want..." Twilight turned her attention back to Pinkie.

"Um... all right." Spike climbed back up the stairs, then climbed back down with some gems in claw. He poured himself a bowl of the oatmeal, then mixed the gems into it. He sat down at the table and started eating it merrily, though his joy was short-lived when he noticed the miserable state Pinkie Pie was in. Her poofy mane was all askew on her face – even by Pinkie standards, that is. Her face was drooping and practically grey.

Spike continued eating, wondering if he should perhaps inquire more into Pinkie's condition and offer to help, or if that would just lead to Twilight snapping viciously at him again. Figuring better safe than sorry, Spike though about what he might have to do today that would involve leaving the library where Twilight couldn't get to him. The spoon of oatmeal that was half-way in his mouth became lodged when he remembered yesterday, and that he had never gotten a chance to talk with Rarity properly. He heard what Twilight said about it being adult mare business, but she was being so aggressive and snappy, his inner rebellious child felt compelled to come to the fore and keep asking until he knew what it was, just so he could know why she was being _insane_ over the subject.

"Spike?" Twilight asked when Spike didn't motion to chew the oatmeal in his mouth. "Are you okay?"

"Hmmg? Mph!" Spike gulped down his food "I'm gonna go to Rarity's, if that's okay."

"All right..." Twilight mumbled to him, not at all suspicious of his motives. After all, Spike always liked going to visit Rarity. He did have a crush on her, and all that. "Have fun and don't get into any trouble."

"I will!" Spike assured her, before realizing he misspoke. "I mean, I won't! No, no, I mean... I will have fun and I won't get into trouble! Bye!"

"Bye... come on, Pinkie."

"What?" Pinkie's gurgling voice spoke.

"I'm going to hang you upside down while drinking water. It always works for me."

"Fine." Pinkie groaned, slumping against her chair. Spike watched in confusion as Twilight used her magic to lift Pinkie up into the air, much against her protesting groans of nausea.

Spike shrugged and shook his head. He vowed to himself he wouldn't be caught in a state like the one Pinkie was in, then headed out the door.

Spike frowned when he stepped outside. The town had been rendered dark from the grey clouds gracing it with their unwelcome, somber presence. From the three-mare team of weatherponies he saw flying right underneath them, the weather team was fixing to make it rain today. Spike hated rainy days. Yes, the plants need the water to photosynthesize, and the animals needed the water to drop into the lake and raise their level, but none of that mean Spike had to like it.

Briefly, Spike thought he heard the door open behind him, but when he turned to look, it was unmoved.

Spike held his claw over his head and tried to make his way to Rarity's Boutique before the rain set in, but when his foot stepped in something squishy, he looked down to see the dirt under him had turned muddy, and realized he had no chance of making it if he didn't bail. Raindrops beginning to pour on his head in a manner most frustrating, Spike cursed the fact he didn't take his coat with him, despite that there was no way for him to have known it was going to rain if he wasn't already outside.

Spike made a break for it, trying to get to the Boutique before the weather turned really hairy, and he banged mercilessly on the door, screaming to be let in.

"Rarity! It's Spike! Let me inside! Please!? It's really pouring out here!"

The door open, but when Spike looked inside, it was Sweetie Belle, not Rarity. Sweetie Belle looked at him conspicuously, like he was a member of an insane conspiracy that she had started before moving to let him inside.

"Thanks." Spike uttered as Sweetie closed the door behind him and handed him a towel to dry off with. Sweetie Belle trotted imperiously away from him while he had the towel wrapped around himself.

"What's going on?" Spike asked when he noticed her leaving.

Sweetie Belle pursed her lips, mulling over something indecisively, before grimacing and pointing her hoof at the kitchen.

"Is something wrong with Rarity, or...your stove or something?" Spike inquired.

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "It's not that, it's...well..." Sweetie Belle gestured for him to enter the room, and Spike initially got the feeling that something nasty was waiting in there for him, before realizing Sweetie Belle was unlikely to go and purposefully send him to his doom.

Purposefully, at least. She could very well be easily sending him to his doom completely on accident, unaware of the real danger of whatever was on the other side of the room. It would not be the first time that a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders failed to realized the true danger of what they were dealing with.

Spike tip-toed into the room, not sure what to expect, but certain it was going to be unpleasant. Upon grabbing the door frame and reaching his head over to peer in, he found it was worse than any of they myriad monsters in his imagination. The stove was not bursting into flames, nor was there a monstrous snake loose in the kitchen. There wasn't a dragon that had shoved its huge head in through the wall, or even a loose Parasprite bug or some other impish sort of cretinous creature.

It was far worse than any of those things.

Rarity was having a fit over something.

"Honestly!" Rarity shrieked, applying more pressure than necessary to an unfortunate dish she was washing. "Of all the downtrodden, rag-tag, no-good..." Rarity directed her eye for detail onto the plate, spying an hitherto unseen speck of dirt on it. For a moment, she forgot her troubles and focused on scrubbing the plate to cleanliness, but as she soon as she put the now-clean dish on the counter, her ranting returned, unhampered. "Why, if I never have to see that brute again, it shall be too soon!"

"Uh, Rarity?" Spike stuttered out, nervously twiddling his fingers. He scrunched his shoulders when he heard the sound of a cooking pot being abused by Rarity's magic. Overcoming his anxiety, Spike walked up besides her, still trying to get her to answer.

"There are two ways you can tell a lady something!" Rarity continued like she didn't hear him, though she did give him a crazed look, more like she was looking through him than at him. "There is a polite way, and an impolite way, and that, my good sir, was an impolite way!"

"Rarity..." Spike said again, reaching out a claw to apply some calming pressure on Rarity's shoulder, but Rarity moved before he could make contact.

"I do not toil away on your suit for hours on end, darling, constantly revising and revising my revising, just for you to show up and tell me you don't like it!" Rarity snarled at the air. "Honestly! Who does that?"

"I don't know..." Spike quipped under his breath. "Diamond Dogs?"

Rarity turned her head towards him, noticing his presence at last. "Oh. Hello, Spike. I didn't see you there. Sorry for not being with you earlier, but I am terribly upset about something!"

"No! Really?" Spike deadpanned.

"Yes!" Rarity hissed at him, lowering her hooves and raising her tail through the air like a flagpole saying "Warning: Irritated Rarity Inbound!". "I've been spending several late hours into this dress for a client, but when he came to pick it up, he said – I kid you not- he said 'I don't like it!'. Not only that, but he refused to reimburse me for the materials I _wasted_ on him! The _nerve_!"

"Yeah, yeah." Spike nodded his mindlessly in agreement, taking a moment to admire Rarity's natural beauty. "The nerve! What a brute."

"Yes, indeed!" Rarity exclaimed, though she seemed just a tiny bit happier that she had someone agreeing with her every word. "Honestly, I mean, really, now, darling, if you don't like it, then that I means I made it for nothing! That I've sunk my funding into an investment that won't be repaid! Can you not see how that might put me a little on edge!? ARRG!" Rarity raised her front hooves to the air, then became aware of how badly her tantrum was escalating. Rarity placed her hooves back on the ground and took in a deep breath.

"So sorry for taking up your time, Spike." Rarity apologized as she trotted from end one of the kitchen to another, using her magic to enchant the dishes into washing themselves. "I feel much better now. That was so un-lady like of mean, was it not?"

"No!" Spike insisted, eager to please Rarity by telling her whatever he though she might like to hear. "Not at all! It's perfectly all right for you to be angry at that jerk!"

"Yes." Rarity admitted, watching as the charmed, soapy washcloth rubbed circles around a filthy mixing bowl. "Yes, I do!" Rarity's anger began to return, but she caught herself in time and took in another deep breath. "Ah, but I cannot waste my life away steaming over flaky clients. That is no way to live." Rarity at last turned her lovely visage to Spike, focusing on him fully. "What can I do for you, Spike?"

"Well..." Spike drawled the word out for a long time, stalling for how long it would take him to come up with best way to phrase his question without letting Rarity know he was asking about Twilight – or telling Rarity anything that Rarity might share with Twilight which would let Twilight know Spike had still been asking, despite her very implicit instructions. Then there was a knock on the door that deflated Spike of any hope he had of getting away with asking Rarity anything.

"Come in, darling!" Rarity called. "The door's unlocked!"

Spike took in a deep breath of his own, and was about to launch into a full-on recap of everything that had happened that would culminate in him asking Rarity what Twilight and Pinkie Pie were doing, when he heard a footstep, and then a voice.

"Hi, Rarity!"

Spike turned to see, to his chagrin, Twilight standing in the doorway, looking quite happy and perky. In a moment of deductive reasoning that was not normally his strong suit, he realized hearing the library door open behind him earlier was Twilight stepping out to follow him. Couldn't she trust him not to misbehave!?

Well... he was doing the very exact thing Twilight had told him not to do, so perhaps it wasn't unjustified that she would follow him, but still! He had a right to his space! Didn't he?

"Hello, Twilight." Rarity said with bemusement. "What brings you here?"

"Just checking up on my number one assistant!" Twilight answered, dragging Spike into her front leg and giving him an affectionate noogie. "Making sure he stays out of trouble...enjoys himself with his friends...doesn't ask anything _he's not supposed to._.." As she spoke, the gleaming smile Twilight gave never faltered, never left her face, but Spike caught the fading flash of a manic gleam in her that betrayed the true meaning in her words.

Spike pushed her leg off his shoulders and moved away from her, all the while grumbling.

"So, while you're both here, care for a drink?" Rarity politely offered, tending to her guests.

"That would be lovely."

"No thanks." Spike crossed his arms and huffed, much to Twilight's and Rarity's shock. Spike never turned down something Rarity offered, even if it was something as simple as a drink.

"Spike?" Rarity cooed. "Are you feeling all right?"

"No." Spike answered briskly, exiting the room.

He cast a cold glare at Twilight as he walked, his green eyes burning with irritation at his foster-mother for underestimating him over and over. "I'm not a child..."

"YES, YOU ARE!"

Twilight gritted her teeth when Rarity, Spike, and a curiosity-piqued Sweetie Belle all gathered 'round and gave her confused glares. Twilight began hyperventilating, worrying about her mask of control slipping further.

"I mean..." Twilight mumbled, trying to salvage the situation. "You _are_, like it or not, still a baby dragon."

"Well, I don't!" Spike snapped before turning around and leaving, making sure to slam Rarity's door as hard as possible on his way out.

"Darling, is everything all right?" Rarity asked Twilight. "You don't normally get so snappy with each other..."

"No." Twilight admitted, dropping to her haunches, a vacancy in her eyes. "No, everything is not all right."

"Do you want to talk-"

"Could we have those drinks now?"

Rarity pursed her lips and frowned at Twilight's avoidance of talking about the situation. "Twilight, darling, you really can't just push something like this to the side and act like it didn't happen."

"Well, that's what I'm doing." Twilight informed her with a huff, crossing her front legs and turning away.

Rarity sighed and shook her head, but she recognized there was no getting through to Twilight on this matter. She left to get a glass for her guest while wondering how bad things were going to get before Twilight realized what she really needed to do to fix her's and Spike's relationship.

Outside, Spike stomped through the unpaved Ponyville roads, anger boiling over and consuming him. It's not his fault Twilight didn't trust him. How much of an immature, juvenile dragon whelp did Twilight think he was, really!?

Stomping his way through and casting dirty, crossed-eyed looks at anypony who so much as came within ten yards of him, Spike eventually realized that the downpour of rain had stopped. Looking up, he saw that skies had partially cleared, still cloudy, but not enough for it rain again anytime soon. While the sky may have been freed from the clouds' icy hold, the ground wasn't, as it was still a mucky mess barely fit for tromping through. That didn't deter him, though. In his anger, the nerves his feet totally ignored the mess of mud he was walking underneath.

Noticing there appeared to be smoke literally coming out of his ears, probably a result of dragon biology, Spike figured it was time to go and get himself something to eat to calm himself down. A gem would hit the spot right quick. But in his current state, like heck he was just gonna walk to some random shopkeeper and pay them bits- his hard-earned bits, from all the hours and hours HE had to spend cleaning up Twilight's messes for a snack, so he decided to go straight to the source.

He began walking out of town, passing Fluttershy on the way, who meekly asked if something was troubling, but he ignored her completely and continued on his way.

He was heading to the cavernous land just outside the edge of Ponyville where Rarity had once been abducted by Diamond Dogs, barbaric creatures like a cross between a troll and a canine, with only a quarter of brainpower of a troll. Large enough to be intimidating to most ponies, they were dimwitted and had a fondness for gems. They weren't very reasonable and rather aggressive, but Spike didn't let a petty worry like that stop him. The reason they had been in the area was because they were so many gems there, ripe for the taking.

As he got further away from his home, though, Spike had second thoughts, realizing he was getting far away from the ponies he cared about without telling them where he was going... but a brief flashback to the fake smile on Twilight's face and suddenly his doubts went away.

He continued on his way, stomping towards the proxy mines with anger in his eyes and hunger in his stomach, as well as apathy in his spleen. He wasn't quite sure how that last one worked, but he didn't question it.

Having made his way to the dirt plains, Spike parked his bottom on the floor and began scanning for signs. Odd bumps or conspicuously-placed rocks that to a trained jewel-hunting like himself, signaled the presence of rare, valuable, and most importantly, tasty gems. A problem being a gem-eating dragon in a pony community, the rarer a gem was, the more ponies and dragons valued it. Slight problem in that a dragon valued for tasting better than more common gems.

He saw a particularly suspicious looking little lump in the ground, a few feet away from where he sat. Getting up to his knees, Spike prepared to sprint towards it and start digging. As his little feet carried him over, he couldn't but wonder, speculate, and fantasize over what it might be. A garnet? A rare sapphire offshoot? Amethyst? Oooh... maybe even a pure diamond!

His claws went to work on the ground, scooping handfuls of dirt and gravel, tearing them away from him and his goal. When he was done, he saw an emerald poking out of the ground. Not quite the highest rarity of gems, but it looked well-aged, which was just as good as being.

Spike wiggled his fingers in anticipation, a little speck of drool already forming around his mouth. He reached in and plucked the emerald from the ground, and was about to plop it into his mouth when he heard a disturbing noise from behind him.

He turned around, and his eyes bugged out of his head at the sight of a Diamond Dog, leering its yellow eyes at him. From the expression on its face, it had been surprised to see him here, but that would subside quickly, and very soon, the trollish canine would attack its stone claws.

"Easy..." Spike said, backing away. "I don't want any trouble, Mister Diamond Dog." Spike noticed the Dog's eyes trailing elsewhere, and remembered the green emerald he had in his claw.

"You want this?" Spike offered the emerald up to the Diamond Dog, thinking missing out on an scout was worth not getting captured and abducted by the Dog itself to serve as a gem-hunting...well, dog.

"Grrr. Our hunting grounds now!" The Diamond Dog growled as it advanced on him, raising his lumbering claws.

Spike figured out what that meant. The Diamond Dogs, or at least this one, had claimed the area as its own personal hunting grounds. Whether that was for gems, prey, or both, Spike had no way of telling, but he could tell that simply offering the Dog his emerald wasn't going to work at all.

Spike raised his arms to shield himself from the coming blow, sure whatever the Diamond Dog's intent, it would no problem knocking him with the help of its rocky hide.

"Eeeh..." Spike whimpered in fear.

"GRR!" growled the Diamond Dog, claws raised to deliver the blow.

"Hey!"

Spike was just as surprised as the Diamond Dog to see Twilight Sparkle, standing defiantly some distance away.

"Leave him alone." Twilight demanded.

"Hmm..." The Diamond Dog narrowed its eyes, wondering where this little pony got off trying to give him an order. In his simple mind, he was bigger than her, and ergo, that meant he had more authority than she did. "Make me!" The Dog mocked her.

"You don't want me to do that." Twilight warned him. "Trust me, you really don't, because I will."

"Hmph!"

The Diamond Dog ignored her, unwisely not taking her threats seriously. Spike yelped and raised his arms again, while Twilight's horn lit with magical power.

Spike was ready to get sent flying backwards from the force of the Diamond Dog's strike and closed his eyes, but when nothing happened for minutes, he opened them to see the Diamond Dog was stuck, a pile of rocks burying its hind leg and keeping it from moving. Spike took a moment to silently regard the sight of the Dog futilely trying to pry his leg of the pile.

"Come on! That won't hold him forever!" Twilight demanded of Spike. She removed his ability to decide whether or not he was going to obey by telekinetically levitating him up into the and lowering him onto her back. Twilight turned around and galloped towards town.

Then it started raining again, soaking them.

"Oh come on." Twilight sighed in exasperation as her wet mane was swung forward in front of her face. "Really? Right now?"

"Well..." Spike clicked his tongue. "At least it can't get any w-"

"Do not finish that sentence."

"Okay..."

Now that they were far enough from the Diamond Dog that the beast couldn't have hunted them down by the it got free of the rocks, Twilight quit galloped and relaxed her legs, slowing her pace to a trot while Spike clung uncomfortably to her neck.

There was a question brought to mind, one that would be far from easy for him to ask her. He took in a deep breath, shelving his pride. He had left because he felt bitter about her recent treatment of him, but she had rescued him from a terrible fate.

"Twilight? Why did you come rescue me?"

Twilight stopped in her tracks, dead as a ghost.

"What do you mean? You're still my assistant, and even if we are on...tense terms right now, that doesn't mean I can just let you go and get foalnapped by Diamond Dogs when everypony tells me no pony's seen you around town!"

"Hmm." Spike turned silently, figuring perhaps that Twilight was right about that. As irritating as it was having Twilight keep up all this secrecy and obfuscation of the truth, that didn't mean she could just forsake her morals and leave him to Diamond Dogs... or whatever even worse fate that cruel nature might have seen fit to lay upon him.

"Hey..." Spike trailed his claws soothingly across her neck, "does this mean you'll tell me what's going on between you and Pinkie now?"

Twilight closed her eyes, and Spike could tell she was on the verge of crying.

"N-no." Twilight choked out. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Spike. You're going to know. You have to know. She- Pinkie- My Pinkie...she's part of my life now, and that means she'll be part of yours, too, but I... I just can't tell you. I-I'm not ready, Spike..."

Twilight, overwhelmed by the strain of emotions running loose around inside like the torrential aftermath of a dam being broken, fell to her knees and began to cry softly into the ground. Spike didn't understand half of what she said, but he stroked her mane as softly and reassuringly as he could nonetheless, wishing silently to himself that everything would just magically be all right again...

* * *

**Author's Notes for "Do For Love"**

**The title of this chapter is a truncation of the phrase "Things I do for love" and at the planning stages, was going to have some actual bearing on the story... but then somehow it didn't work out like that.**

**I was going to tell you this story was going to cut short because I didn't have the enthusiasm or material to keep going for as long as I wanted (11, same as Her Void Pink), but then I realized I had enough plot for another three more chapters (7+3=10), and having another chapter of Spike not finding out what was going would probably nag at you at all a little, so everything works out!**


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